The Unnatural (25 Apr. 1999)
"The X Files" The Unnatural (original title)

Mulder uncovers a story involving a Negro baseball player in the 1940s who played for a minor league team in Roswell. When in a photograph he sees the Alien Bounty Hunter it is assumed that Josh Exley, the baseball player in question, might just be alien himself.

Director:

David Duchovny

Writers:

Chris Carter (creator), David Duchovny

Stars:

David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Fredric Lehne

Cast

Episode credited cast:
David Duchovny	...	Fox Mulder
Gillian Anderson	...	Dana Scully
Fredric Lehne	...	Young Arthur Dales (as Fredric Lane)
Jesse L. Martin	...	Josh Exley
M. Emmet Walsh	...	Arthur Dales
Brian Thompson	...	Alien Bounty Hunter
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Lou Beatty Jr.	...	Black Coach
Gabriel Clifton	...	Black Kid
Daniel Ducovny	...	Piney (as Daniel Duchovny)
Julie Griffith	...	Beautiful Woman
Jesse James	...	Poorboy
Al Kaplon	...	Umpire
Lennie Loftin	...	Coranado
Kerric Macdonald	...	Moose
Ken Medlock	...	White Coach

Storyline

Searching through an FBI reference book, Mulder finds a photograph of Arthur Dales with a baseball team and the alien bounty hunter. Mulder goes to Arthur Dales' house to ask him about the photograph. There he finds Arthur Dales' brother, also named Arthur. Mr. Dales proceeds to tell Mulder a story of a 1940's Negro baseball player in Roswell named Josh Exley who was closing in on breaking some professional baseball records. Mr. Dales tells how he was assigned to protect this player from the KKK and that Exley was actually an alien.

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Genres:

Drama | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

25 April 1999 (USA)

Filming Locations:

John Galvin Park - 1001 N Grove Ave, Ontario, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Ten Thirteen Productions, 20th Century Fox Television

Technical Specs

Runtime:

60 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This episode marks David Duchovny's writing and directorial debut.

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Goofs

At several points, including at the very opening when they are hit with baseballs, we see Saguaro cacti around what we are told is "Roswell, N.M.". While they are the most widely recognized of all the cacti, Saguaro cacti have a fairly small growing environment. That environment does not include the State of New Mexico.

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Quotes

Mulder: Did you bring enough ice cream to share with the rest of the class?
Scully: It's not ice cream... it's non-fat tofutti rice dreamsicle.
Mulder: Ugh... I bet the air in my mouth tastes better than that.

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Crazy Credits

Instead of "THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE," the opening title sequence ends with the words "IN THE BIG INNING."

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Connections

References E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

User Reviews

I have seen the life on this planet, Scully and that is exactly why I am looking elsewhere.

The Unnatural is an enjoyable x-files episode, written and directed by David Duchovny.

It's pitiful to see Mulder and Scully in the X-Files basement office on a weekend. I can see Mulder hanging out there, but Scully? I don't think so. Usually Mulder gives her some lame excuse to join him on a weekend excursion, but apparently she is with him on her own volition.

What really hampers this episode from truly being better is the loss of the memorable Darren McGavin. Now, while "Travelers" and "Agua Mala" aren't the best episodes in the x-files library, Darren McGavin's performances are great. During the filming of "The Unnatural", Darren McGavin became ill and couldn't continue. This was a great loss, because it affected the quality of the episode, causing David Duchovny to do re-writes in the middle of filming the episode. They got M. Emmitt Walsh to replace Darren McGavin, who, a fine actor in his own right, just doesn't fill McGavin's shoes as Arthur Dales' brother, Arthur.

The re-write may have caused Duchovny to forget that Arthur Dales had moved to Florida(Agua Mala), because it doesn't make sense that Mulder would go looking for Arthur Dales in D.C. when he already knew Dales was in Florida. The re-write leads Duchovny to creating the lame joke of Arthur Dales' brother also being named Arthur, along with their sister and goldfish.

The DVD allows you the opportunity to compare McGavin's performance with Walsh's. It's not even close. Walsh calls Mulder "Agent MacGyver"? It had already been established that Dales knew Mulder's name, and didn't have problems remembering it.

The episode shows that Josh Exley is afraid of exposure of his true nature so he avoids going to the big leagues. Yet, Arthur Dales tells Mulder that several big names in baseball BEFORE Exley were aliens, and they didn't seem to have any problem keeping their identity secret. Later, the police are asking Dales where Exley is, like it's a big mystery, yet he's still with his team, playing a game that very night.

I really like the scene transitions in the episode. They were very creative, especially when Mulder and Dales were watching the Alien Bounty Hunter on TV.

The Unnatural is a cute little baseball story that is fun to watch. David Duchovny doesn't do a bad job writing and directing, but the loss of Darren McGavin shows, and the episode suffers for it a little. However, The Unnatural still is a solid hit.