"The X Files" Synchrony (1997)

Director:

Jim Charleston

Writers:

Chris Carter (creator)
Howard Gordon (written by) ...

TV Series:

"The X Files" (1993)

Original Air Date:

13 April 1997 (Season 4, Episode 19)

Genre:

Drama | Horror | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Plot:

A mysterious old man is killing scientists working on the development of a cryobiologic compound. He freezes them to death with this same compound that doesn't even exist yet. |

Plot Keywords:

Spontaneous Combustion | Time Travel | Deep Freeze | FBI | FBI Agent

US TV Schedule:

Tue. Dec. 29

2:00 AM

SYFY

Synchrony

#4.19

Cast

David Duchovny	...	Fox Mulder
Gillian Anderson	...	Dana Scully
Joseph Fuqua	...	Dr. Jason Nichols
Susan Lee Hoffman	...	Lisa Ianelli
Michael Fairman	...	Older Jason Nichols
Jed Rees	...	Lucas Menand
Hiro Kanagawa	...	Dr. Yonechi
Jonathan Walker	...	Chuck Lukerman
Alison Matthews	...	The Doctor
Norman Armour	...	Coroner
Patricia Idlette	...	The Desk Clerk
Brent Chapman	...	The Security Cop
Terry Arrowsmith	...	Uniformed Cop
Aurelio Dinunzio	...	Detective (as Aureleo Di Nunzio)

Runtime:

Argentina:60 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Argentina:13

Company:

20th Century Fox Television

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): (At 38:10) Moulder knocks a hole in the window using a fire extinguisher just before the two men burst into flames. He makes no attempt to put them out using the extinguisher he is still holding.

Quotes:

Mulder: If Lucas Menand never gets hit by that bus, his complaint gets heard before the grand committee, Jason Nichols loses his funding and he never gets to collaborate on his research with Dr. Yonechi. Therefore, this photograph never gets taken because this celebration never happens.
Scully: ...And if your sister is your aunt and your mother marries your uncle, you'd be your own grandpa!

It puts a whole new spin on being your own worst enemy, huh?

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

I love sci-fi time travel stories. Ever since Back to the Future I have wondered what it would be like to travel back in time and try to warn myself about certain things. It wouldn't be an X-Files episode without really weird corpses of course. In this episode we have an old man ranting about predicting the future who is arrested. Later the arresting officer is found dead and frozen yet strangely his body temperature is dropping. The casting in the episode does a really good job of making sure the old Jason and the young Jason look very much alike. Also apparently in the future the cure for bad eye sight has been found so there is hope for all you that wear glasses and contacts. The old man has come back to stop himself and other scientists from doing the research that finds the way that will make it possible for humans to survive time travel. The main problem with time travel stories is they never make logical sense mainly because the consequences of changing the past always present a paradox. If in the future you can travel to the past and then everyone ends up screwing up history then how come history isn't screwed up in the present due to the people from the past coming and screwing it up. There are explanations for this but they are all of course only theories. The best way to understand it at least to me is to look at each reality as one plane of existence. Then when time travel is invented and things in the past are changed they only happen on separate planes of existence. This is easy to understand if you understand the idea of the fourth dimension. But hey I'm not an expert on this at all. The coolest part of this episode is when the Asian guy bursts into flames after he is revived from being frozen. In any case the episode is decent but not my favorite portrayal of the time travel theme. I give it an 8 out of 10.