I Am Starting To Believe
I do have a degree in information technology and computer science from a very old, very well-respected engineering school, but I stayed miles away from anything resembling sci-fi while I was there. I was a senior before I saw the Star Wars trilogy, and my introduction to Star Trek was last year’s blockbuster film, plus a little bit in a grad school class on Moby-Dick. (Incidentally, I also never played video games until we bought a Wii last summer, and I still, well, never really play them. Those neural pathways continue in their dormancy.)
Yet since I was a kid, I have always had a strange fascination with space. Not space travel, or planets, really. More with the weird stuff that might go on out there.
After I was finally convinced to watch (and then converted to the cult of) Battlestar Galactica, the single most chilling moment for me is still when someone is shot out of their craft and freezes while free-floating in outer space. I think I may have had a recurring nightmare of a similar event in the past.
Sunshine, a flawed but deeply thought-provoking (and incredibly scary) sci-fi film that Danny Boyle made a couple years ago, has a similar theme of being abandoned in deep space, without plans or ability to return home. I only saw the film once, not long after it released to DVD, and I still find myself thinking of it, chilled by it. (Despite its flaws, I highly recommend it.)
Anyhow, the point of all this: We started watching X-Files earlier this year, when it came to Netflix (all nine seasons, streaming!), and I have been holding my breath all through the first season, knowing that this is going to bust wide open. I don’t really watch the hour-long drama genre – certainly not the vaguely cop/crime kind – but I got into this really fast. It’s been standalone episodes, but we just finished the first season and I’m delighted that an arc is emerging.
I do recognize that I’m the last person on earth (ahahaha) to actually watch the show, but that said, I insisted we dive directly into season 2. My hopes for this season include the Mulder/Scully romance that is obviously going to emerge, some kind of actual face-to-face alien contact, and, most obviously, a much better wardrobe for Scully.
If you’re inclined to comment, please resist the know-it-all urge and don’t ruin anything for me. 
Make that two who have never seen the series! I actually have never watched an episode of X-files.
Battlestar Galactica was impressive for me in many ways, one of them being the scenes you mentioned in which someone is shot out of the craft. Because space is a vacuum, sound does not travel through it, and a person being shot out of the craft would immediately be ensconced in the deep silence of space, in addition to being frozen and asphyxiated. Chilling indeed. It impressed me that the writers kept true to the science.
You’re not the last one to see them! I’ve only seen a few episodes…
Hmm… just starting working through Battlestar Galactica with a friend.
You’re in for a real treat, Matt. By the way, I’m sad to miss your wedding … See you and your lovely bride at Mary’s!
I adore the X-Files! I came into them late too but have since watched all nine seasons and many of those episodes at least two or three times. The show knows how to tell a good story. Enjoy!