| "Little Green Men" | |||
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| The X-Files episode | |||
Fox Mulder and U.S. Senator Richard Matheson |
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| Episode no. | Season 2 Episode 1 |
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| Directed by | David Nutter | ||
| Written by | Glen Morgan James Wong |
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| Production code | 2X01 | ||
| Original air date | September 16, 1994 | ||
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| Episode chronology | |||
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| List of season 2 episodes List of The X-Files episodes |
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"Little Green Men" is the first episode of the second season of the science fiction television series The X-Files. It premiered on the Fox network on September 16, 1994 in the United States. It was first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC Two on August 28, 1995. The story was written by Glen Morgan and James Wong, and directed by David Nutter. The episode is one of those which helped to explore the series' overarching mythology. "Little Green Men" earned a Nielsen household rating of 10.3, being watched by 9.8 million people in its initial broadcast. The episode received mostly positive reviews from critics.
In the episode, FBI special agent Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) goes to the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico to continue his search for proof on extraterrestrial life. Meanwhile, Agent Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) attempts to aid him after being separated following the closure of the X-Files.
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In the episode's prologue, Fox Mulder narrates a history of NASA's Voyager program and the now-defunct High Resolution Microwave Survey, which sought to contact extraterrestrial life in outer space. At the Survey's abandoned observatory in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, the equipment inside suddenly activates, indicating a response from an alien intelligence.
Since the closure of the X-Files, the FBI has re-assigned Mulder his former partner Dana Scully. The two have a discreet meeting at the parking lot of the Watergate Hotel, where Mulder admits that he has been doubting his belief in the paranormal since Deep Throat's assassination. Mulder flashes back to the night when his sister, Samantha, was abducted.
Mulder is summoned to a meeting with his ally, Senator Richard Matheson. Matheson tells Mulder to travel to Arecibo, where he will be able to continue his search for the truth. Matheson assures Mulder that he'll try to hold off a Blue Beret UFO retrieval team said to be headed there in twenty-four hours. Mulder heads to Puerto Rico and arrives at the satellite receiving station. He finds a frightened Hispanic man, Jorge, who draws a picture of an alien that he claims to have seen. Meanwhile, Scully, unaware of Mulder's whereabouts, tries to find him. Reviewing a list of flights from Washington, Scully finds that Mulder, using an alias, traveled to Puerto Rico.
Mulder discovers a signal, possibly originating from an extraterrestrial intelligence. During a storm, Jorge gets scared and runs outside. Mulder finds him dead of fright. When Scully goes to an airport to fly to Puerto Rico, she realizes she's being tracked by a couple, but manages to escape from them. Meanwhile, as Mulder investigates Jorge's corpse, the room shakes. The door opens and the shadowy figure of an alien appears. Scully wakes Mulder up the next morning, finding him excited about the readouts and tapes of the signals—the proof of aliens he has sought for so long. However, the Blue Beret team arrives, forcing them to flee with only a tape reel.
Upon his return to Washington, D.C., Mulder is admonished by Assistant Director Walter Skinner and the Smoking Man for his actions. Mulder claims he still had enough evidence with the days missed to prosecute the subject of his assigned wiretap, and that his own phone calls were being monitored. Skinner demands that the Cigarette Smoking Man leave the room, and decides to not discipline Mulder. Investigating the tape reel, Mulder finds it blank due to a power surge during the storm.
This episode, written by Glen Morgan and James Wong and directed by David Nutter,[1] was specifically for Mulder to question himself and his beliefs.[2] The Puerto Rican scenes were filmed at the Seymour Demonstration Forest in Northern Vancouver, while the Plaza of Nations doubled for the Miami Airport.[3] Although there are discrepancies between the depiction of Samantha's abduction in this episode and Mulder's description of it in "Pilot", series creator Chris Carter has attributed this to the unreliability of Mulder's hypnosis-induced memories.[4] Extraterrestrials make their first appearance in this episode, as Carter thought it would be a good moment to reveal them.[5] The image of the alien was stretched in post-production to make it look taller and skinnier.[6]
Senator Matheson was named after the sci-fi and horror writer Richard Matheson, who wrote many episodes of The Twilight Zone. Matheson was also originally the character who was to recite the episode's opening monologue. Darren McGavin, of Kolchak: The Night Stalker, was sought out for the Senator Matheson role.[4] He also was sought after to be Mulder's dad.[4] In the end, McGavin finally agreed to be on the show playing Arthur Dales, the agent who originally founded the X-Files.[4]
Gillian Anderson said on Late Night with Conan O'Brien that when they were filming the final scene escaping the Blue Berets, the actors had to pretend to shoot their guns with their own sound effects, and that "it was very hard to focus without breaking out laughing."[7] At the airport, Scully is pretending to read the fictional Miami Post Tribune but closer inspection reveals that she is actually reading the "Facts And Arguments" page from Canada's national paper, The Globe and Mail. The flight manifest that Scully is scanning in search for Mulder is a list of X-Files fans.[4]
"Little Green Men" premiered on the Fox network on September 16, 1994, and was first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC Two on August 28, 1995.[1] This episode earned a Nielsen rating of 10.3, with a 19 share, meaning that roughly 10.3 percent of all television-equipped households, and 19 percent of households watching television, were tuned in to the episode. It was viewed by 9.8 million households.[8]
The episode garnered mostly positive praise from critics. Entertainment Weekly wrote that the episode "Powerfully depicts both Mulder's gnawing sense of defeat and his bond with Scully, strangely growing stronger with separation" before concluding that the episode was "fairly standard."[9] The site ultimately gave the episode a B.[9] Reviewer Zack Handlen of The A.V. Club positively compared and contrasted the episode to the cartoon Scooby Doo, Where Are You? writing that, "I used to be a huge "Scooby Doo" fan. [...] Of course, none of [the villains] were really monsters. [...] The X-Files exploited a simple truth: we all want to believe. We might be afraid of what's lurking in the dark, but isn't there always a bit of wishing inside that fear? A hope that what we think we know isn't everything there is to know. That just once it might be nice to reach for a zipper and instead find nothing but cool scales."[10] Handlen ultimately called the episode "Essential."[10] Reviewer Dan Barrett from the 400 Club wrote that "The X-Files is off to a stonking good start with this season 2 opening."[11]
Not all reviews were positive, Critical Myth's John Keegan gave the episode 5/10, and wrote that many of the episode's factors "take away from the impact of the episode, which should have been much stronger after the excellent season finale that came before it. Instead, the episode feels thin in comparison."[12]