The X-Files: Firewalker Rewatch
March 29, 2020 9:12 PM - Season 2, Episode 9 - Subscribe
A volcanologist shows Mulder and Scully a video transmission from a volcano in Mount Avalon, New Hampshire, in which a dead seismologist and a moving shadow appears, and asks them to investigate the matter.
Leland Orser! (he always has great deaths)
and Hiro Kanagawa! (who, yes I remembered correctly, comes back a couple more times as different characters)
and Shawnee Smith!
What a great guest cast.
re: ice
Remote scientific research location, check
Mind altering parasite, check
his best impression of Martin Sheen
The headband really sells it.
The fungus growing out of Tanaka is very reminiscent of Ophiocordyceps sinensis where the fungus parasitizes ghost moth larvae, sucks the caterpillars out from the inside, then grows a fruiting body much like what's coming out of Tanaka's throat.
But if they're silicon-based life, it's unlikely to be able to derive nutrients from humans. Life chemistry aside, there isn't enough silicon in humans and the larvae/ spore can carry only so much of it with it. A human body is about 23% carbon and silicon is about 0.0014%. A silicon-based spore isn't going to get a lot bigger sucking elemental silicon from a human body.
posted by porpoise at 7:41 PM on March 30, 2020 [2 favorites]
and Hiro Kanagawa! (who, yes I remembered correctly, comes back a couple more times as different characters)
and Shawnee Smith!
What a great guest cast.
re: ice
Remote scientific research location, check
Mind altering parasite, check
his best impression of Martin Sheen
The headband really sells it.
The fungus growing out of Tanaka is very reminiscent of Ophiocordyceps sinensis where the fungus parasitizes ghost moth larvae, sucks the caterpillars out from the inside, then grows a fruiting body much like what's coming out of Tanaka's throat.
But if they're silicon-based life, it's unlikely to be able to derive nutrients from humans. Life chemistry aside, there isn't enough silicon in humans and the larvae/ spore can carry only so much of it with it. A human body is about 23% carbon and silicon is about 0.0014%. A silicon-based spore isn't going to get a lot bigger sucking elemental silicon from a human body.
posted by porpoise at 7:41 PM on March 30, 2020 [2 favorites]
This episode is very much in the same vein as "Ice", so much so that it almost had me thinking there ought to be similar earth and wind episodes as well.
I was thinking Bradley Whitford had gone Lord of the Flies, but Apocalypse Now is an even better analogy.
And yes, that's a pretty damn impressive guest cast.
Mulder was very protective of Scully in this episode, so much so that she was telling him to get a grip. I noticed she wore a big sweater, and I bet those shots of her carrying O'Neil were not actually of Anderson, but a stunt double.
Oh, I got the Mount Avalon location wrong: this was a fictional Mount Avalon located in Oregon.
posted by orange swan at 9:53 AM on March 31, 2020 [2 favorites]
I was thinking Bradley Whitford had gone Lord of the Flies, but Apocalypse Now is an even better analogy.
And yes, that's a pretty damn impressive guest cast.
Mulder was very protective of Scully in this episode, so much so that she was telling him to get a grip. I noticed she wore a big sweater, and I bet those shots of her carrying O'Neil were not actually of Anderson, but a stunt double.
Oh, I got the Mount Avalon location wrong: this was a fictional Mount Avalon located in Oregon.
posted by orange swan at 9:53 AM on March 31, 2020 [2 favorites]
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posted by tobascodagama at 10:17 AM on March 30, 2020 [1 favorite]