The Bicephalid Intervention

The Genesaunt Trilogy

In my previous blog post, I imagined an alternate Reality in which Jack Vance was targeted by an Interventionist effort to change the course of his writing career during the 1960s: in the Buld Reality, Vance was diverted from writing three "Ellery Queen" mystery novels and he instead crafted a science fiction trilogy that never existed here in the Final Reality: "The Genesaunt Trilogy".

Now, in this blog post, I want to go further back in time and explore a way to alter Vance's writing at an embryonic stage, in 1940.

Time Travel
What is known about the earliest writings of Vance? This page lists a 1940 editorial in The Daily Californian by Vance about jazz music, written and published while Vance was in school.

1946

Vance's first published science fiction story as listed at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database was "The World-Thinker" which although first published in 1945, may have been written significantly earlier (1941?). According to Russell Letson, John Campbell (editor of Astounding) was rejecting stories from Vance as early as 1938.

The Summer 1945 issue of Thrilling Wonder Stories not only has "The World-Thinker", but also some personal information about Vance. In the part of the magazine called "The Story Behind the Story", it is stated that Vance was then 24 years old, but if Vance was born in 1916... well, you do the math. Some folks say that Vance was actually born in 1920. Does it matter? If I understand this correctly, Thrilling Wonder Stories was being "secretly" edited by Samuel Merwin when Vance finally broke into the world of pulp Sci Fi story publishing. Apparently Merwin was married to a woman named Lee Anna Vance. Small world.

1945

In "The Story Behind the Story", it also says that Vance was working on a new story for TWS.

Insectoid

interior art by Marco Marchioni

In the December 1946 issue of Thrilling Wonder Stories (download here) appeared "Phalid's Fate". The story was mentioned on the cover, where Vance's name had to compete with rocket skis and ray-guns. The 'Phalid' are an alien race with insect-like eyes (see the image to the left on this page). Earthman Ryan Wratch is nearly killed by the alien Phalid, but his brain is transplanted into the body of a captured Phalid in an attempt to infiltrate the Phalid civilization. I'll give Vance credit for Sci Fi plot audacity, but I struggled to suspend disbelief while reading "Phalid's Fate".

Wratch discovers that (now inside the Phalid body) he has telepathic abilities, an innate human ability now revealed by having his brain inside an alien body. The alien being in Vance's story "The World-Thinker" also had telepathic abilities.

"Laoome's Planet" by prutzworks

Lieutenant Lanarck
I previously read the 1955 published version of "The World-Thinker" and wondered if that version had been altered from the 1945 version (download here).

Welcome to the Hi Tek™ world of 2074 where the Tellurian Empire has applied atomic power to space travel and can now send men like Commander Lieutenant James Bond Lanarck of Tellurian Naval Intelligence zipping out among the stars on missions of world-shattering importance... in this case, the need to track-down a set of equations that may portend doom and destruction for the Empire! Vance's "layman's" description of the importance of these equations sounds like a primer on string theory. From a casual reading, the 1945 and 1955 versions of the story are the same.

Laoome

page 95 of the Fantastic Story Magazine,
Winter 1955

Lanarck visits a distant planet where he meets Laoome, "the Final Sage of the Fifth Universe", for whom telepathic communication is a minor talent. More importantly,  Laoome can think entire worlds into existence. Maybe for Vance, having an alien with telepathy is just an "easy" way to ensure that there is no need to deal with a language barrier between humans and aliens during your short story.

There are two good reasons to read "The World-Thinker" as it was printed Fantastic Story Magazine in 1955. One is the interior art work by Edmund Emshwiller. The other unexpected nugget: right in the middle of the 1955 printing of "The World-Thinker" is a full page advertisement for Real magazine. The ad proclaims: "SPIES FROM OUTER SPACE", which was a topic in the November 1954 issue of Real.

interior art for "Planet of the Black Dust"

The world was changed in 1947 with well-publicized reports of "flying saucers" and "alien spacecraft".

Dustup
Summer of 1946 saw another Vance story published: "Planet of the black Dust". It is easy to imagine that "Planet of the black Dust" was written after Vance went to sea. Vance begins the story on board the space-freighter Perseus and soon we are dealing with evil pirates.

From my perspective in 2019 and reading "Planet of the black Dust", it seems exactly the kind of contrived adventure story that might have appeared in a magazine like Real. I can only just (barely) believe that "Planet of the black Dust" was written by Jack Vance.

The Qua Intervention
Zal entered the Viewing room where Qua was making last minute preparations to enter into Time. Images from 1940 swirled around Qua as she immersed herself in the feel of California. Zal issued a warning, "Don't break an ankle in those ridiculous heels."

Qua turned, grinned at Zal and switched off the Viewer. "Hey! What are you doing here, Zal?"

Zal handed a vial of infites to Qua and replied, "Since you are going to be in Berkeley at the right time, I have a small task for you. We are shutting down the Philip Dick Intervention."

Qua slipped the vial into her pocket and looked quizzically at Zal. "Are you serious?"

Zal nodded and let her breath out, producing a loud sigh. "Never fear, we are moving on to a new plan for leaking information about hierion physics to the Earthlings. In fact, while you are in California you can simultaneously terminate the Dick Intervention and help me get the new back-up plan rolling."

Qua complained, "I was only a few moments away from stepping into Time... I can't believe you waited until the last second to spring this on me."

Zal laughed, "We have all the time in the world. Relax. This will be simple."

Qua tried to relax, but she did not like sudden changes. She wished she could wipe Zal's smug grin off of her face. Qua took a deep breath and asked, "What do you need me to do?"

"Carry out your mission at the Radiation Lab as planned. After you are sure that plans for the atom bomb project are finalized, don't immediately return to Eternity. Keep your eyes open! After the military security team departs with the Europeans, stay in the conference room. A work crew will arrive and start repairs to the AV equipment. A member of that crew is J. H. Vance, a work-study student." Zal lifted a finger and sent a puff of infites into Qua.

Almost instantly, Qua could "see" an image of Vance; a newly implanted memory. Zal was still speaking, "Arrange to go out on the town with Vance... I recommend that you suggest going to the Big Bear Tavern to listen to music. Talk to Vance about his story writing. The following morning is the optimal opportunity to deal with Philip." Zal turned and walked away, heading towards the nearby corner of the room that held the teleportation equipment. She turned her head over her shoulder and said, "Have fun!"

Qua shouted, "Wait!" She ran after Zal. "What do I do with Philip?"

"Don't fret. I can't tell you too much about your future. You will be stepping into a complex Time nexus in Berkeley, so just play it by ear. Everything will work out fine." Zal stepped onto the teleporter pad and disappeared.

Qua stamped her foot in exasperation and twisted her ankle. Stupid high heels! She went back to the Viewer and tried to look at her own future. All she got was a flashing red warning message: TEMPORAL PARADOX WARNING - ACCESS DENIED.

Muttering quietly to herself, Qua went to the corner of the room where the time travel equipment awaited her. She double checked the Time settings and then entered into the year 1940.

As a Grendel, Qua could reshape her body into any convenient form. Now, she was using her shape-shifting ability to impersonate a U. C. Berkeley student named Anna Dawson. At the moment when Qua arrived on Earth in 1940, Anna was simultaneously shifted out of Time for the duration of Qua's mission on Earth. Anna was held in the information buffer of the time travel equipment for the duration of Qua's mission.

Appearing in California, Qua was behind the wheel of her car. She immediately turned her attention to the plans that Anna had formulated for the morning. Since she had no classes on Fridays, Anna had volunteered to help with a task facing the University Function Decorating Committee. Qua drove to the Radiation Laboratory east of campus. Joining up with the rest of her squad, they proceeded to set out decorations for a meeting of physicists and high-level government officials.

While they worked, Anna and the other Committee volunteers were shadowed and endlessly questioned by government security officers. After all of the vases full of flowers were prepared, the security men pulled out the flowers, looking for microphones. The flowers were quickly put back into the vases and placed in the large conference room, just minutes before the meeting began. However, Qua had placed some invisibly small nanites into one of the vases. During the meeting, those nanites would be under the control R. Nyrtia, a positronic robot who was working from within the Hierion Domain to make certain that World War II ended with a bang- with the detonation of two nuclear bombs.

During the meeting, Anna and the other University Function Decorating Committee members waited in the front lobby of the Radiation lab. They saw Ernest Lawrence and about two dozen other men pass through the lobby on their way to the conference room. Anna (Qua) was the only one who knew that this meeting would determine the course of nuclear fission research and nuclear bomb development in the United States. During the two hour meeting, Anna and the other members of the University Function Decorating Committee read and did school work. When the meeting finally ended, the lobby became noisy. A work crew arrived and Ana recognized John Vance as one of the newly arrived workers who along with the University Function Decorating Committee members were now allowed into the conference room. The flower bouquets were carefully packed up into boxes and then the security team brought in a big janitorial trash cart on wheels and threw all the flowers and the vases into the trash cart.

The director of the University Function Decorating Committee crew objected, "Don't throw away the vases. And we were going to reuse these flowers!"

A security officer said, "I have orders to incinerate all the decorations."

"Do you really think there is a tiny tape recorder hidden in one of these?"

"I don't think, I follow orders. How much are the vases and the flowers worth?"

"At least fifty dollars."

The security man opened his wallet and handed over 100 dollars. "Sorry for the inconvenience." His men wheeled away the cart full of flowers to the building's furnace.

The University Function Decorating Committee crew departed from the Radiation Lab, returning to the main campus, but Anna had begun talking to John Vance. Pretending that she had hurt her ankle, she hobbled over and sat down in a chair and watched him work. She asked him, "What are you doing?"

He was splicing together two cables, but he explained, "Yesterday I watched those security goons cut all of the microphone lines in this room. Today we get to repair the cut lines."

Anna took off her shoe and massaged her foot and ankle. She asked, "We?"

Vance pointed to one member of the crew, "Mr. Torres is actually a university electrician. Ralph and I are work-study students for the AV Club." During the next ten minutes, Vance and Anna managed to discuss their class schedules, what they knew about Ernest Lawrence and the Radiation Lab and their shared interest in jazz music. Torres finally approached and spoke to Vance, "Let's test that line." He hooked up a microphone to the repaired line and spoke through the speaker system. "Good job Vance. In the time you fixed one line, Ralph repaired five others." He turned to Anna and asked, "And who are you, besides a major distraction?"

Anna laughed. "Sorry I distracted John. I'm Anna Dawson, from the University Function Decorating Committee."

The head security officer said to Torres, "If you are done, let's go. My team has to get to the airport." Anna, John, Ralph and Torres were carefully searched and then escorted out of the building.

Torres and Ralph were heading towards the visitors parking lot. Torres turned back to where Vance and Anna stood in the shade of the building; they were again talking about their interests in music. Torres called, "You coming, Vance?"

Anna replied, "I'll give him a ride."

Vance was having no luck keeping his eyes off of Anna. She was dressed in a red-stripped shirt and stylish pants that showed off her long legs. He smiled at Anna and mumbled, "Thanks."

After a rather intense discussion about which instruments should be present in a jazz band, John said, "I love that you know so much about music. Do you play an instrument?"

Anna replied, "Sadly, I have not had time for music lately." She pointed down the street and told John, "I'm parked over here." She led the way to her car. She asked, "So, you play jazz horn?"

He replied, "Well, I'd like to. I try. I don't really have much experience."

"I'd like to hear you play."

"Not if you like jazz. I play to have fun. I'm really not any good." They had reached Anna's car. Vance looked at the shiny, sleek vehicle and asked, "This is your car?"

"Yes. I hope you are not unhappy with the fact that my father dotes on me. I admit, I'm really quite spoiled."

Anna's Packard

Vance ran his hand over the fender of the car. "Is this a Packard 180?"

"Yes. Almost new."

"I've heard of this car, but I've never seen one."

"It may have been the first one to reach the west coast. Daddy had it shipped out for my birthday."

They got into the car and Anna drove back towards the main campus. Anna said, "I'm glad I met you today. Since we both like jazz, I'd like to invite you to join me tonight. There's a band I want to hear... they are playing at the Big Bear Tavern tonight."

John nodded, "That sounds wonderful. I have to get to class now, and then I have two more hours of work scheduled this afternoon, but I'll be free at 5:00."

"I'll pick you up at the South Gate at 5:15." Anna pulled up at the East Gate of the campus and stopped the Packard 180.

Vance got out of the car and said, "I'm glad I met you, Anna. And thank you for the invitation. South Gate at 5:15!" He closed the passenger door, waved to Ana through the window, turned and hurried to his geology class.

At 5:10, Vance found Anna waiting at the South Gate. She was on the sidewalk, leaning against the passenger side door of the Packard. When she saw Vance she waved to him and she gave him a brief hug. "You drive, John."

He got into the driver's seat and started the engine. Vance asked, "150 horse power?"

"Theoretically, 160, but who knows? I don't trust advertising claims." She turned on the radio and the Packard filled with music being played by station KMKY in Oakland.

Vance said, "Two good tests of an engine are towing a load or climbing hills. I ruined my first car going up Mt. Diablo."

Anna said, "Cars are like girls. Treat them gently."

Vance laughed. "A guy always wonders just how much he can get out of an engine... or a girl. Let's go up to old Round Top." He turned onto Claremont Avenue and soon they were making their way up into the Oakland hills.

Anna opened the glove compartment, pulled out a baseball cap and put it on her head then rolled down her window. Vance put down his window and glanced over at Anna, watching her long hair whip around her neck. He said, "Round Top is a volcano. I've been up here with my geology professor."

Anna asked, "Are you a science major or in engineering?"

Vance laughed, "I'm an English major, but I don't think in terms of narrow niches. I'm taking mostly science classes right now, but since I want to become a writer, I should probably take more writing and literature classes."

At the ridge-line, they got out of the car and walked to the rim of the volcano. On the way back to the car, they watched the red colors of the setting sun.

Vance drove them on to the east, over the ridge and then south through to Moraga. On a stretch of straight and level road in the valley, Vance got the Packard up to 75 miles per hour. Anna said, "Please don't drive us into the ditch at this speed."

Having determined how much he could get out of the Packard, Vance slowed down to a sensible speed and said, "For a minute there I felt like we were flying." He turned up Redwood Road and drove them on to the Big Bear Tavern.

Inside the Tavern, Anna seated them in the quietest corner, away from the band and asked Vance about his writing. He told her all about a story that he had submitted for publication. While he spoke, he felt himself sinking deeper and deeper into Anna's big eyes. He imagined that he could see a strange new world there in the dark depths of her eyes. After describing the plot and characters of his story, he told Anna, "I think it is a good story, but I have not been able to convince anyone to publish it."

Anna said, "I'd like to read it." She asked, "How do the spaceships in your story actually work?"

original cover art by Gilmore

"I don't know. Does it matter?"

Anna shrugged, "It is fun when some technical details are provided. These days, with cyclotrons and nuclear physics in the news, you should invent some fancy nuclear power source for your space travel needs." Anna discovered that in among the infites she had received from Zal was a large amount of information about science fiction. She asked Vance, "Have you seen the latest issue of Astounding? Campbell has a new story about alien visitors who help Earthlings develop a new nuclear power source."

Vance shook his head, "I'll have to get my hands on that. All I've ever gotten from Campbell are rejections of my stories."

"Come with me back to my place. You can read my copy."

The next morning, Vance woke up in Anna's bed. She was calling from the kitchen, "Get up, sleepy head. We're going to be late."

He staggered out of bed and was hit by a wave of dizziness. After resting for a minute, his head cleared and he was able to pull on his clothes. A copy of the issue of Astounding with "Nuclear Spy Ring" on the cover rested on the night stand. He vaguely remembered having read the story and then there were also fragments of memory from having discussed that story with Anna then... nothing. Or were there additional memories of strange dreams? Good aromas were drifting through the house. Anna had a big breakfast waiting for him. Vance let his murky memories fade away and he feasted his eyes on Anna while he ate. John was certain that she looked even more beautiful across the breakfast table than she had seemed the previous day.

After eating, Vance was feeling better, but was still unable to remember clearly how he had ended up at Anna's house and in her bed. While he had eaten, she'd talked about the local science fiction fan club whose members were a mixture of high school and college students. Mostly she talked about one member of the club, someone named Philip. "He's just a kid, but he has already started writing stories for the Berkeley Daily Gazette."

Vance gave his head a little shake and tried to snap himself out of the contented daze he had fallen into. He told himself: I don't want to snap out of it! He decided that he was quite happy listening to Anna's lovely voice and watching her magical movements.

They got into Anna's big Packard and Vance asked, "You are a member of the fan club?"

Anna laughed, "No, I've just been told to pay Philip a visit... and to bring you along."

Vance rubbed his head in confusion. "Told by who?"

Anna did not respond immediately. She turned on the radio and for a time she and John talked about music. Soon they reached the parking lot at the high school where the science fiction fan club met on Saturday mornings. Anna parked the car and turned towards Vance. "I need to warn you. Things might get strange today."

Vance said, "Tell me about it. Everything has been strange since I met you."

Anna laughed and winked at John. "You've discovered my secret: turning the lives of men upside-down." She took hold of his hand. "Your life will soon get back to normal. Last night you read "Nuclear Spy Ring"; that story tells my mission on Earth... making sure that nuclear science developed in a way that will do the least harm to this planet. However, today we have to deal with Philip. He has attracted the attention of aliens, and we have to step in and make sure that he does not... well, I'll just say... we don't want him to get carried away." She jumped out of the car.

Vance followed Anna into the school building. "I don't know what you are talking about." That was almost true, except for the fact that now he seemed to remember Anna telling him about her "mission". Or was that a dream memory... or part of the plot in "Nuclear Spy Ring"? He could almost remember Anna talking late into the night, telling him how she had come to be on Earth....

Vance seemed to recall that Anna had said, "I was born a Bicephalid, on a distant planet near the center of the galaxy. My name does not easily translate into English, but after I worked odd jobs here on Earth for a time, I adopted the name Qua. For this mission, half of my brain was transplanted into the body of an Earth girl named Anna Dawson. I was at the Radiation Lab yesterday to make sure that America would develop a nuclear bomb and use it to end the war."

Vance had listened to Anna with fascination and had objected only to mundane facts that contradicted Anna's (or Qua's) wild story. "America is not involved in the war."

Anna/Qua explained, "America will get into the war soon enough and America will finish it, with a bang. While working here on Earth, I'm in telepathic contact with the other half of 'my' brain, which is still inside my body. I was well trained for my mission of making sure that America develops a nuclear bomb, but this science fiction mission with Philip is an emergency matter, and I'm just getting information on the fly from my other half. Anyhow, we might run into an Overseer when we go to meet Philip, so don't be surprised if things get weird."

Upon arriving in Anna's comfortable house, Vance had been trying to read the story "Nuclear Spy Ring" while Anna talked. He wondered: did I ever manage to reach the end of that story? Now, in the light of day, his memories were twisted and he could not reconstruct a sensible linear sequence of events from the previous evening. Maybe Anna had been telling him about how that science fiction story would turn out? He remembered thinking at one point: if only I could calm down and think... but all he could do was keep turning the pages of the story and reading.

Overseer Tement

Vance's flash of memory from the previous night faded from his consciousness. He chuckled and said, "I guess I need to expect things will be weird as long as you are around."

Now they went through the front door of the high school and Anna paused, looking left and right down the long hallways, as if uncertain where to go. Voices came echoing down the corridors from unseen people. Another woman came in through the door behind them and said to Anna, "Qua? Is that you?" Anna's disguise was transparent to the woman, who easily recognized Qua by making use of sophisticated nanite probes. "What are you doing here?"

Anna turned and looked at the woman. She said, "I'll have to ask you the same thing, Overseer."

The Overseer pointed to Vance. "Who is this?"

Vance pointed at the Overseer and asked Anna, "Who is this?"

Anna said, "Overseer Tement, meet John Vance. John, this is Belinda Tement, an Earth Overseer." She spoke to Belinda, "I suppose you want to make use of Philip as your agent on Earth."

Admitting nothing, the Overseer shrugged. She was carrying a magazine. "I just need to deliver some reading material to the science fiction fan club." She waved an issue of Secret Science Stories towards Anna. "Why are you here?"

At that moment, a new voice replied to the Overseer, "Anna was tasked with carrying some special nanites to this place and time. You will now find it very difficult to remain on your feet."

A small swarm of nanites had migrated from Qua into the body of Overseer Tement. Tement now teetered and then slumped to the floor. Anna stepped forward and picked up the copy of Secret Science Stories. The mysterious voice said, "Don't let Philip see that magazine! It was designed to capture his imagination and turn him into a fanatical writer, on a mission to reveal the secrets of alien visitors to Earth."

Anna handed the magazine to Vance and she told him, "Take this back to the car. I'll join you there in just a minute."

Vance wanted to ask who the mysterious voice belonged to and what was going on, but like Overseer Tement, he was completely under the control of Qua's nanites. Taking the magazine in hand, he obediently turned and walked back to the Packard, looking with curiosity into the pages of Secret Science Stories.

Anna picked up Overseer Tement, tucked her body under one arm and carried her into the nearest classroom. Anna/Qua knew that the Overseer would regain consciousness in about an hour and not remember anything about having met either Vance or Qua.

When Anna came back through the classroom door into the hallway, Philip Dick had just come in through the front door. Anna said to him, "I'm looking for the meeting of the Latin Lovers Club."

Philip pointed up the hallway. "The Latin club meets in room 430, but you'd have more fun if you come with me. I'm going to the meeting of the Berkeley Science Fiction Club."

Anna patted Philip on the head, "You run along and have fun. I've never understood science fiction."

He shrugged and went down the other hallway, looking back over his shoulder once at Anna.

She went up the hallway, past room 430, out the side door of the school and back to the car where Vance waited, reading a story in the Secret Science Stories magazine. Wordlessly they got into the car. When she started the engine, he said, "I've never heard of this magazine. It has the craziest stories..."

hierion tubes

Anna drove the big Packard out of the school parking lot and got back on the street. She told Vance, "You can keep that magazine if you like."

The mysterious disembodied voice said, "Wrap this up, Qua. You need to get back over to Berlin."

Qua complained, "Don't be so pushy, Zal. I have plenty of time."

Vance looked up from the magazine. "Anna, what's going on? Who are you talking to?"

Anna replied, "Zal is an old friend who asked me to do her a favor."

"But why can't I see her?"

"John, I don't have time to explain it, but Zal's voice is reaching us via a hierion tube... a type of advanced technology not yet known to Earth. Read that issue of Secret Science Stories. The Overseers created it as a way to tell Philip about alien science and technology, including hierion physics. Get the feel of those stories. Later tonight, your memories will be edited again. After that final editing, you won't remember most of yesterday or today, or much about me, but you will have a few, mostly subconscious memories that will alter the course of your writing career."

Vance was vastly intrigued by what Anna had said, but at the same time, he seemed to already know what she was telling him. Her words only confirmed another voice that was already deep in his mind.

original cover art by Virgil Finlay
and Lawrence Stevens

Vance turned his attention back to the story he was reading. Suddenly Anna slammed on the brakes and the Packard came to an abrupt halt. Anna shouted, "Who are you?"

Vance looked at Anna and stammered, "John. I'm John."

Anna had a look of fear on her face. "Get out of my car. I don't know who you are or how you got in here. Get out!"

Vance got out of the car and watched Anna drive away. He turned his attention back to the Secret Science Stories and walked back home. Later that night, as he had been promised, after he fell asleep, his memories were altered and the copy of Secret Science Stories disappeared. Sunday morning he awoke and began writing a new story about an alien species called the Phalids.

Next: The Ancient Drones of Jack Vance.

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Baby is 2018

A sedronite joins the party.
Original cover art by Edmund Emshwiller.
Special thanks to Miranda Hedman
(www.mirish.deviantart.com) for the DeviantArt
stock photograph "Black Cat 9 - stock"
used to create the blue sedronite.

Continuing the tradition of a special New Year wikifiction blog post and tweet, here is a science fiction themed image to welcome in 2018 (see the image to the right on this page).

The AR Simulator
I like to imagine that in a past Reality, the Asimov Reality, alien beings from other worlds were not restricted from showing themselves on Earth. The cover illustration of Galaxy Science Fiction, October 1952 by Edmund Emshwiller included depictions of Sci Fi writers such as Asimov and Theodore Sturgeon. Sturgeon was born in 1918, so 2018 will be a year to celebrate his science fiction stories. That October 1952 issue of Galaxy included the story "Baby is Three", probably the first story written by Sturgeon that I ever read.

special for 2017

Inside the Asimov Reality Simulator of Eternity, maybe a crazy party scene like that shown to the right (and above, on this page) could actually happen in the year 2018!

Related Reading: Celebrating Theodore Sturgeon
The Golden Helix  - Killdozer! -  Twink
 - The Perfect Host
Next: retro-reading Sturgeon's 1953 story, "The Wages of Synergy"

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Specials
for 2016
for 2017

TXF-11

Agents Miller and Einstein

Five years ago I blogged about ten of my favorite Star Trek episodes. About a year and a half ago, after the all too brief "season 10", I shared some fantasies about how to move forward with The X-Files. And what I mean by "forward" involves new episodes that are oriented towards telling fun science fiction stories.

TXF-11. Now, with The X-Files "season 11" scheduled to arrive in 2018, I feel the need to look back affectionately at some (11) of the most hard-core science fiction X-Files episodes.

As a Sci Fi fan, I shy away from the many horror-oriented episodes of The X-Files. My hope is that "season 11" will be heavy on the science fiction and light on the explosions and horror. Rumor has it that some women will be involved as episode writers and directors in Season 11, so there might be a real chance for some positive changes.

Dr. Bambi and Dr. Alex: can
they defend Earth against aliens?

1. War of the Coprophages
When The War of the Worlds depicted a Martian invasion of Earth, we were supposed to believe that the hapless Martians were being sensible: their world was "dying" so they had to move to Earth. These days, whenever the tired Hollywood alien invasion machine gets fired up again, we must tremble in fear: fear that the aliens are here for our gold or some other absurd "reason".

Get off my lawn!

In the end, the technologically superior Martians imagined by Wells were defeated by Earth's lowly microbes.

The core Sci Fi theme of The X-Files is alien invasion, but we are continually encouraged to doubt what we see and to ask: are these "aliens" simply manufactured via disinformation or, possibly, by means of over-active imaginations? And, sadly, the creators of The X-Files have no intention of providing an answer to that fundamental question.

Dr. Bambi's theory: UFOs are glowing insect swarms.

Because this is Hollywood and everything revolves around $$$: the story can't ever make sense or get tied up in a neat bundle... if it did, the cash flow would end. According to the success formula for The X-Files, uncertainty must trump everything. Along the way, science, scientists and even the science fiction genre are mocked by Hollywood writers catering to an audience and sponsors and Chris Carter who seem more interested in horror and vast conspiracies than science fiction.

Her name is Bambi?

Alien Incompetence
For Herbert Wells, the incompetence of the invading Martians could be "explained" by the fact that they were not very technologically advanced and they were desperate. In The X-Files, we are teased with the running theme that an alien "invasion" has been in progress for a very long time. If so, how could the aliens be so incompetent that they have not yet completed their work?

alien probe

What if aliens have long been visiting Earth, but they really are not interested in revealing themselves to Earthlings? This may have been the "thought" behind "War of the Coprophages". Mulder finds a metallic roach that might be an alien probe. However, this "alien probe" crumbles to dust. As usual nothing definitive is learned by the end of the episode. Entertainment is the objective, not bumbling Earthlings gaining knowledge about life beyond Earth.

black oil

"War of the Coprophages" was played for laughs (and written by Darin Morgan), so don't bother thinking too much about the plot. If aliens have actually been sending probes composed of nanites to Earth, we'd never know about it and there would have been no episode with Scully asking over the phone, "Her name is Bambi?"

2. Piper Maru
This episode (written by Chris Carter) makes nanotechnology part of the core "mythology" of The X-Files. At least, I'm forced to conceptualize the "black oil" as being a manifestation of alien nanotechnology. Of course, it is advanced technology that was not designed to efficiently achieve a function; it is a Hollywood gimmick designed to keep a gullible audience seated in front of screens.

radiation burst emitted by alien nanotechnology

As a science fiction fan, I love the idea of advanced alien nanotechnology that allows alien beings to take control of human bodies like puppets. Of course, no matter how advanced the alien technology is, it must be flawed so that the hero of the show is not killed and there is always another $-making episode to come. And no matter how sophisticated their nanotechnology, the aliens must deploy dramatic Hollywood ray guns radiation flashes that leave behind squads of horribly burned victims.

Fermi Paradox
Chris Carter's solution to the Fermi Paradox is that technologically advanced aliens came to Earth to make television shows. The aliens deploy their advanced (but flawed) technology so as to keep themselves hidden (mostly) from Fox Mulder, but not hidden well enough to prevent some other bumbling humans (the extras) from seeing too much and then having to be exterminated.

Skinner's life is saved by a magic nose tube.

This Sci Fi tease formula gets repetitive and old quite fast, but never faster than during "Piper Maru" and its follow-up episode (Apocrypha). Really, this could have been a one hour-long episode exploring the power of alien nanotechnology, but it was two back-to-back episodes larded up with tear-jerking scenes of Skinner being shot and Scully re-living her childhood.

3. Pusher
In Hollywood, we need loud explosions and dramatic scenes, and the X-Files formula relies on never-ending misdirection and confusion, not explanations. Telepathic powers are a classic topic in science fiction stories, but don't expect to learn anything about ESP from The X-Files: all logic and explanations have been neatly replaced by explosions, crashes and gun fire. Boom! This is one of the many episodes from X-Files-fan-turned-show-writer, Vince Gilligan.

The Mule: a mutant and his music of the mind.

In "Pusher" there is no explanation for the perp's ability to take control of minds and make people kill themselves. Viewers are teased with the idea that a brain tumor is causing abnormal brain activity.

"The tumor remained operable right up until the end, but he refused to have it removed."

The Mule
Isaac Asimov teased his readers (back in the 1940s) with the idea that The Mule was a mutant, born with powerful "mentalic" abilities. Just before his death, Asimov wrote a scene for Forward the Foundation where telepathy was used in a courtroom to control the outcome of a criminal case. Asimov asked us to believe that there were people with telepathic powers scattered about on Trantor, just waiting to bump into each other, combine their powers and take control of the galaxy. And Asimov told us that Daneel (a telepathic robot) was working quietly in the background, having arranged for the formation of the Second Foundation.

source

Sadly, in The X-files, there is not the slightest glimmer of a rational account for how telepathic powers sometimes appear among the human population of Earth. We get various confused suggestions about alien-human hybrids and advanced nanotechnology, but nothing need make sense in Hollywood.

Technology-Assisted Telepathy
It is very difficult to concoct an explanation for how biological brains could power telepathy. I know how difficult it is because I've tried. Imagine that inside human cells there might be an organelle called a "telastid" that allows for information exchange my means of "T-particles", which are a type of hierion.

hierions and sedrons

I like to imagine that aliens engineered we humans and endowed us with telastids. Maybe sometimes the power of our telastids is revealed when they start to malfunction, but but we Earthling are too technologically primitive: we don't even recognize the existence of hierions and sedrons.

"Pusher" was designed like a Monster of the Week episode in which Mulder has to struggle against a murderous adversary. Much more on the fun side of the spectrum, "Sunshine Days" brought Scully to the brink of having a telepathic human who could be scientifically studied. Of course, at the end of the episode, the rug was pulled out from under us and, as usual, we learned nothing about the physical basis of human telepathy. Once during The X-Files we were told that within human "junk DNA" are the dormant genes that make telepathy possible, but, sadly, gene cloning has not yet been discovered by the fictional FBI in Hollywood, so we really don't know how telepathy works.

telepaths

Finally, in "season 10" (see this blog post), we were most recently teased by telepathic children who seemed to be able to combine their powers, much as depicted by Asimov in his Foundation Saga (Wanda).

Please, sir, I want more.
Of course, once again, since this is just Hollywood and The X-Files, nothing need be explained and nothing was learned about the imaginary science of telepathy. I suspect that telepathy will be back on our plates for Season 11.

non-fiction fiction

4. From Outer Space
Moving back towards the light-hearted end of the X-Files spectrum, "Jose Chung's From Outer Space" (written by Darin Morgan) is a comical look at pop culture UFOlogy.

I love the idea of "non-fiction fiction", a story about aliens that is based on reality, but perceived by readers as fiction. The X-Files also played with this concept in "Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man".

beam me up!

Fantasy inside of delusion all wrapped up in disinformation. Humans dressed up like aliens who try to abduct two kids but who themselves get abducted by an alien. And a famous writer who is trying to write a book about it. To his credit, Mulder refuses to talk to Mr. Chung who comes across as a twitching and quirky half-alien creature himself.

This is not happening.
By the time Mr. Chung interviews Scully about a 3 month old alien abduction case, he has already given up all hope of learning the truth -Chung just wants to write a book about the case and make $$$. In her account of the investigation, Scully reports that her first guess was that good old fashioned lying, "sexual trauma" and suggestibility is what caused the two kids in the FBI case to tell tales of alien abduction.

Mulder: the pie-eating mandroid

And then the real head case (or, as Scully kindly puts it, "a fantasy-prone personality") in this case shows up, Mr. Roky Crikenson. He's a witness to the encounter with aliens and he's written down everything that happened. But he's nervous because he's been visited by Men in Black who have given him a warning: if he tells anyone what he saw then, the MIB assure him, "you're a dead man".

The apex of the episode is when yet another witness to the abduction (yes, out in the middle of nowhere there must always be at least three witnesses to an alien abduction) describes Mulder and Scully as men in black. Mr. Blain Faulkner, a self-proclaimed UFO nut fanatic, gives the classic X-Files eye-witness account:

"One of them was disguised as a woman, but wasn't pulling it off. Like, her hair was red but it was a little too red, you know? And the other one... the tall, lanky one... his face was so blank and expressionless. He didn't even seem human. I, I think he was a mandroid."

Blain and Dana getting to the truth about aliens.

Just when both Mulder and Scully are ready to abandon the idea that this is a case about aliens, a "dead alien" turns up in town. Then it turns out to be a man in a rubber alien suit. Falkner gets to shoot video during the autopsy when Scully discovers that the "gray alien" is actually a man in a costume. Sadly for the credibility of Scully, this home video recording was leaked and edited to make it appear that she must have covered up evidence for aliens.

Mulder and Lieutenant Schaffer
getting to the truth about aliens.

In second place for laughs during this wacky episode, when an Air Force pilot (Lieutenant Schaffer) shows up, psychologically traumatized and wandering through town, he crafts a small mountain out of mashed potatoes, as in Close Encounters.

In his book, Mr. Chung describes Mulder as a "ticking timebomb of insanity". We are left to believe that the entire case arose when a secret Air Force plane crashed and the towns folk were given false memories about alien abductions. The false memories were implanted by Air Force personnel using hypnosis to confuse those who saw a secret government aircraft.

5. Kill Switch

Ms. Nairn: cyberpunk goddess

This episode was written by William Gibson who exploited a natural good fit between the dark fantasy of cyberpunk and The X-Files. The cyberpunk genre and the stories of Gibson can be viewed as a dystopian literature written by postmodern English majors who knew nothing about computers and artificial intelligence. The plot of "Kill Switch", like every other logic and science-defying creation of Hollywood is piled high with loud explosions in an effort to hide its lack of coherence. As a time capsule of the 1990s, it is fun to look back at "Kill Switch" and see how it tries to bamboozle the audience by throwing around terms like "upload", "internet" and "orbital platform".

Mulder in a cyber trap.

We are asked to imagine that genius hackers created an artificial lifeform that evolved to consciousness within the internet. And ultimately, the freakish Ms. Nairn manages to upload her mind into the internet, apparently merging with the rogue AI.... or something.

ninja Scully

The most absurd part of "Kill Switch" is when the "conscious artificial lifeform" magically snaps a virtual reality headset on Mulder and suddenly takes control of Mulder's mind. Hollywood has milked this sort of idiotic "I don't know I'm in a simulated world" nonsense for decades, without bothering to show viewers a technology that might make it believable.

artificial life

Barbie Nurses
In Mulder's virtual reality experience, Scully appears as a kick-ass avenger who beats up a gang of fantasy nurses. It is not surprising, but rather sad, to feel obligated to include this episode on my list of 11 science fiction-oriented X-Files episodes. We can take this as a warning: when the folks in Hollywood are trying hardest to be hip and up-to-date, their work ages very quickly.

Artificial intelligence gone-bad is a theme that Hollywood endlessly milk$. The most recently uber-hyped entry in this category was the film Ex Machina. The saving grace of "Kill Switch" was that the regular staff tried to lighten the story up a bit during Mulder's "dream experience".

1930s Scully

6. Triangle
Mulder goes into the Bermuda Triangle and then time travel fun begins. Sadly, since this is The X-Files, we never really know if this is a story about actual time travel or just some sort of dream that Mulder has.

Inexplicably, unless this is Mulder's dream, an ocean liner from the 1930s ("trapped" in the Triangle) has passengers who look just like Scully (except for her hideous 1930s hair style) and Mulder's nemesis from the 1990s, the evil CSM.

After repeatedly getting the crap beaten out of him and almost drowning (consolation: he gets to kiss Scully), Mulder magically returns from the Bermuda Triangle and he can now verbally express his love for Scully, making this nautical episode a shippers delight.

Could what Mulder experiences during this episode possibly be some sort of alternate Reality in which Scully lives as a secret agent in the 1930's? For me, it is fun to imagine that it might be possible for Mulder to get a glimpse of an alternate Reality.

time twisted

The X-Files did sometimes play with the idea that time is more flexible than we like to believe. Two examples of X-Files episodes that explored flexible time flow are #7 and #8 on my list, below.

7. Dreamland

Let's do the time warp, again.

"Dreamland" was actually a two-part episode, but for my list I'm only counting it as one episode. Here, not only was the flow of time altered for our viewing pleasure, but Mulder's mind was exchanged with that of an actual "Man in Black", a secret agent at Area 51 who had the task of creating cover stories to hide advanced Air Force aircraft that made use of alien technology.

Backstory. The government has been using secretly held alien technology since it was "captured" in the 1940s. An anti-gravity equipped aircraft buzzes over Mulder and suddenly he finds his consciousness swapped with that of an Area 51 employee (Morris Fletcher).

The Fletcher kitchen.

Comedy ensues when Mulder has to deal with Fletcher's family and Morris (now inside Mulder's body) decides to take full advantage of being inside the FBI (and even inside Skinner's cute secretary). Scully finally figures out that this philandering "Mulder" is no longer really Mulder, but is there any way to correct/reverse this body swap?

Slingshot effect
We are supposed to believe that the alien technology of the flying machine briefly malfunctioned and caused a space-time warp. Then magically, the time warp "snaps back" and Fox and Morris are returned to their correct bodies.

Lucrative mind transfer.

Mind transfer. I've previously described mind transfer as probably the single most lucrative Sci Fi plot device ever deployed by Hollywood. Asimov used to describe time travel as an irresistible science fiction plot device, even when we know that time travel makes no scientific sense. Similarly, it is easy for people to imagine minds leaping from body to body, even if that is a scientific impossibility. In "Dreamland", we must go along for the laughs and not think too much about the implausibility of it all.

Pam is sacrificed so that Mulder can live.

8. Monday
The X-Files does Groundhog Day. There is something charming about the idea that the flow of time might not always be linear, that we might be able to keep repeating an event until we "get it right". In "Monday", Mulder seems to be teetering on the edge of being subtracted from the world by a crazy bank robber. But, strangely, not only does the day of his death keep repeating, he gradually begins to remember some events from previous turns of the time loop.

"...who's to say that if you did rewind it and start over again that it wouldn't end up exactly the same way?" -Scully

Eventually, a friend of the bank robber (Pam) sacrifices her own life, allowing Mulder to live and time to resume its march into the future. One interpretation of this plot is that Pam needs Mulder so that she can find a way to stop the crazed bank robber before he kills anyone. Maybe it is Mulder's openness to the unconventional that allows him to begin to notice that he is in a time loop?

bank robber

Strange choice. If you were going to repeatedly "rewind" the same scene for Scully, why would you have her in the most boring FBI meeting ever? I'd like a rewind of this episode so it could be crafted to depict Scully repeatedly doing something more interesting than attending a long,  idiotic meeting.

And while I'm playing Groundhog with "Monday"... how about a more interesting perp? The bank robber is portrayed as a complete incompetent, but at the same time he was able to assemble a bank-blasting bomb with such stealth that even informing the police about his plans before the robbery could not stop him?

Baseball-loving alien.

9. The Unnatural
This episode of The X-Files reminds me of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. In that movie, Nimoy was able to to take a rather tired Sci Fi franchise and propel it into fun new terrain: going back to 20th century Earth but still going where Star Trek had not gone before.

X-Files star David Duchovny both wrote and directed "The Natural", crafting a modern fairy tale set comfortably in the fictional universe of The X-Files.

Scene 1: nonfat tofutti rice dreamsicle

I like to imagine that advanced nanotechnology is what gave the aliens an ability to morph and take on human form. With technology that advanced, maybe it would be possible to transform an alien into exact  human form, right down to the correct color of blood. I've never understood the whole "human-alien hybrid" idea lurking in The X-Files, but if aliens were going to start living on Earth by making use of hybrid bodies then why not show off their high-tech biological alterations abilities to full effect?

Shut up Mulder and play ball

Both the starting scene of "The Unnatural" and the final scene with Scully and Mulder hitting baseballs nicely capture the working relationship of the two agents.

10. Field Trip

Will this be the fate of
Scully and Mulder?

This is the last in a run of five impressive Season Six Sci Fi episodes (#6-10 on my list). I like the idea that Earth might long ago have been "infected" by alien nanites. After millions of years of inactivity, might defective alien nanites activate and take the form of "black oil" or something more integrated into Earth's ecosystem, like a mysterious fungus?

source

Given the other powers attributed to alien nanite technology in The X-Files, why not assume that alien "mind control" nanites could put humans into a dream-like state and hold them there long enough to be "digested". "Field Trip" was a monster of the week episode, but it could have been linked into the show's long-running alien invasion mythology.

Dr. Scully's struggle

11. My Struggle II
Mulder's struggle, Scully's struggle, Chris Carter's struggle to remain relevant, our struggle as Sci Fi fans to find entertainment in Hollywood productions. Well, you know it ain't easy. I've previously complained about the low quality of the science in The X-files, but I have to give Chris Carter and the rest of the X-Files crew credit for trying to include some science fiction in "season 10". My main motivation for placing "My Struggle II" in this list of 11 science fiction episodes is built upon hope that between the end of season 10 and the start of season 11, Carter may have had time to shore up the crumbling walls of the "alien DNA" plot hole that he previously dug.

Related: one month until Season 11

Next: celebrating the life of Jack Vance

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