"The X Files" Vienen (2001)

User Rating:

7.9/10   

Director:

Rod Hardy

Writers:

Chris Carter (creator)
Steven Maeda (written by)

TV Series:

"The X Files" (1993)

Original Air Date:

29 April 2001 (Season 8, Episode 18)

Genre:

Drama | Horror | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Plot:

Doggett and Mulder unwillingly team up investigating an oil rig where some mysterious murders have happened and the possibility of the Black Cancer being involved is a haunting reality. |

Plot Keywords:

Title Spoken By Character | FBI | FBI Agent | Alien | X Files

Cast

David Duchovny	...	Fox Mulder
Gillian Anderson	...	Dana Scully
Robert Patrick	...	John Doggett
Mitch Pileggi	...	Walter Skinner
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Casey Biggs	...	Saksa
Gregory Cruz	...	Diego Garza (as Gregory Norman Cruz)
M.C. Gainey	...	Bo Taylor
Kevin Loomis	...	Chef (as Kevin C. Loomis)
Rich Marotta	...	Hockey Announcer
David Michie	...	Diego (voice)
James Pickens Jr.	...	FBI Deputy Director Alvin Kersh
Lee Reherman	...	Yuri Volkoff
Miguel Sandoval	...	Martin Ortega
Andrei Sterling	...	Alien Abductee
Luis Villalta	...	Simon de la Cruz
Steve Wilcox	...	Ed Dell

Runtime:

Argentina:60 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Spanish

Certification:

Argentina:13

Company:

20th Century Fox Television

Trivia:

"Vienen" is Spanish for 'They Come'.

Goofs:

Continuity: Jumping off the oil rig, the first shot shows Doggett falling ahead of Mulder, the second shot the opposite is true, and in the last shot they are reversed yet again.

Quotes:

John Doggett: I never would have believed those stories about you.
Mulder: Really? What stories are those?
John Doggett: That you could find a conspiracy at a church picnic.
Mulder: What church?

Movie Connections:

References Star Wars (1977)

And you'd love to help, but you left your light saber at home.

Vienen takes us back to a familiar friend of the x-files, the black oil. But it's the black oil like you've never seen it before. Vienen is the first and only Mulder/Doggett episode and you shouldn't miss it.

For two guys that don't care for each other that much, the two actors have good chemistry and work very well together. Their dialogue is fun to listen to as they constantly take jabs at each other. It's unfortunate that this combination didn't happen more, but Doggett was Mulder's replacement, so that really wasn't possible.

Kersh is just as mean and nasty as ever. I just love to hate his character. James Pickens Jr. plays that part to perfection.

The Spanish sounds good in this episode, at least from the Hispanics. I'm not sure about Doggett's Spanish. It's better than his Spanish in season nine's John Doe though.

The set of the oil rig is fantastic. It feels like Doggett and Mulder are actually on a rig. The special effects of the rig on fire and exploding are also well done.

A couple of things don't sit right for me in this episode, which prevent me from giving it a perfect score. The black oil seems to exhibit out-of-character characteristics. In previous episodes, when it has jumped from person to person, it leaves the previous person completely. In Vienen, it appears to be able to share itself with almost the entire crew. Also, it has to use some kind of radio to communicate? They act like mindless drones instead of sentient beings as in previous episodes. If this new property of the black oil would've been explained better, I could've gone with it. But as it is, they don't, so I was left feeling a little confused.

As Mulder and Scully both said in this episode, it's just like old times; black oil, flaunting authority, etc. Vienen is a good ride with Mulder and Doggett essentially doing a Buddy flick. Be sure to enjoy Vienen before "they come".