1 00:00:03,120 --> 00:00:05,600 Speaker 1: Strange Arrivals is a production of I Heart three D 2 00:00:05,720 --> 00:00:15,640 Speaker 1: audio for full exposure, listen with headphones. How did the 3 00:00:15,720 --> 00:00:18,279 Speaker 1: United States develop the technology to pull ahead of the 4 00:00:18,360 --> 00:00:21,600 Speaker 1: Russians in the space race? Many believe that a sophisticated 5 00:00:21,640 --> 00:00:25,239 Speaker 1: guidance system was salvage from a crashed UFO. Not for 6 00:00:25,360 --> 00:00:27,920 Speaker 1: the first time, a motion picture tells the story of 7 00:00:27,960 --> 00:00:31,640 Speaker 1: these incredible events. It started with an accident in space 8 00:00:34,800 --> 00:00:36,879 Speaker 1: and it led to the crash of a large metallic 9 00:00:36,920 --> 00:00:40,320 Speaker 1: disc in the Arizona Desert. Why have the facts been 10 00:00:40,400 --> 00:00:43,720 Speaker 1: kept hidden from the American public? What is it our 11 00:00:43,760 --> 00:00:46,880 Speaker 1: government doesn't want us to know? This new motion picture 12 00:00:47,040 --> 00:00:50,159 Speaker 1: reveals the startling proof that the government actually has the 13 00:00:50,200 --> 00:00:53,600 Speaker 1: wreckage of Appliance Saucer and the bodies of alien astronauts. 14 00:00:54,560 --> 00:00:56,920 Speaker 1: You will learn the incredible story of the most startling 15 00:00:56,960 --> 00:01:00,640 Speaker 1: government cover up ever conceived. See a story of the 16 00:01:00,760 --> 00:01:11,080 Speaker 1: UFO Covered up Hanger eight D. I'm Toby Ball and 17 00:01:11,160 --> 00:01:31,119 Speaker 1: this is Strange Arrivals Episode twelve. Hypernormalization in Pearson's Magazine 18 00:01:31,120 --> 00:01:35,200 Speaker 1: in Great Britain and Cosmopolitan Magazine in the United States 19 00:01:35,800 --> 00:01:40,840 Speaker 1: serialized H. G. Wells The War of the World's It 20 00:01:40,920 --> 00:01:44,160 Speaker 1: was published in book form the following year. It is 21 00:01:44,200 --> 00:01:47,319 Speaker 1: one of the first stories of humans confronted with beings 22 00:01:47,360 --> 00:01:51,960 Speaker 1: from outer space, and its inspired movies, comic books, in 23 00:01:52,120 --> 00:01:56,280 Speaker 1: orson Wells famous radio broadcast. It's safe to say that 24 00:01:56,400 --> 00:02:00,680 Speaker 1: most alien related popular culture doesn't engage to directly with 25 00:02:00,760 --> 00:02:05,200 Speaker 1: the UFO folklore. Classics such as Invasion of the Body 26 00:02:05,240 --> 00:02:09,040 Speaker 1: Snatchers or The Day the Earth Stood still common on 27 00:02:09,160 --> 00:02:13,480 Speaker 1: larger social issues of the time. Abduction accounts have led 28 00:02:13,480 --> 00:02:17,519 Speaker 1: to movies like The UFO Incident and Fire in the Sky, 29 00:02:17,600 --> 00:02:22,359 Speaker 1: which addressed those particular stories, but not the broader UFO context. 30 00:02:23,040 --> 00:02:26,440 Speaker 1: Even Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which borrows some 31 00:02:26,560 --> 00:02:30,040 Speaker 1: from the UFO folklore of the late nineteen seventies, does 32 00:02:30,080 --> 00:02:34,440 Speaker 1: not concern itself much with broader themes of government complicity 33 00:02:34,560 --> 00:02:38,960 Speaker 1: beyond the security around Devil's Tower. The most significant piece 34 00:02:39,000 --> 00:02:42,560 Speaker 1: of popular culture to use the UFO folklore was the 35 00:02:42,760 --> 00:02:49,360 Speaker 1: iconic nine nineties television show The X Files. I had 36 00:02:49,360 --> 00:02:54,640 Speaker 1: an idea way back in the eighties there was a 37 00:02:54,639 --> 00:02:56,880 Speaker 1: show on that I loved when I was a kid 38 00:02:56,960 --> 00:03:00,120 Speaker 1: called cold Check The Night Stuck, and it was the 39 00:03:00,120 --> 00:03:02,239 Speaker 1: scariest thing I've ever seen on TV. So I thought, 40 00:03:02,480 --> 00:03:04,960 Speaker 1: there's nothing scary on TV one, and I try to 41 00:03:05,000 --> 00:03:07,239 Speaker 1: do a show that is as scary as that one. 42 00:03:08,440 --> 00:03:11,760 Speaker 1: This is Chris Carter, creator of The X Files. So 43 00:03:11,800 --> 00:03:14,360 Speaker 1: I sat down and came up with the characters of 44 00:03:14,400 --> 00:03:18,240 Speaker 1: Molder and Scully FBI agents. I was inspired, especially you 45 00:03:18,240 --> 00:03:21,600 Speaker 1: can see Scully's red hair by Silence of the Lambs. 46 00:03:22,480 --> 00:03:24,760 Speaker 1: That was an early inspiration. So I came up with 47 00:03:24,800 --> 00:03:27,320 Speaker 1: these two characters, and I kind of turned the tables 48 00:03:27,360 --> 00:03:32,000 Speaker 1: on what would be the stereotypical believer in skeptic Maiden 49 00:03:32,400 --> 00:03:36,840 Speaker 1: Molder the male the believer, and Scully the female, the skeptic. 50 00:03:37,200 --> 00:03:39,960 Speaker 1: I wanted to make her not only a doctor, but 51 00:03:40,520 --> 00:03:45,080 Speaker 1: a scientist, so she could refute Molder's claims with her 52 00:03:45,160 --> 00:03:49,480 Speaker 1: hard science. It's a take on another iconic duo, the 53 00:03:49,560 --> 00:03:53,720 Speaker 1: Kirk Spock partnership from the original Star Trek, a way 54 00:03:53,760 --> 00:03:56,560 Speaker 1: for the issues of the show to be reasoned through 55 00:03:56,600 --> 00:04:02,920 Speaker 1: the two lead characters. The show is fictionalized, scripted storytelling 56 00:04:03,160 --> 00:04:06,280 Speaker 1: vehicle for these characters, Molder and Scarlet looking for the truth. 57 00:04:06,320 --> 00:04:08,600 Speaker 1: And I said to them, you know, they wanted to 58 00:04:08,640 --> 00:04:11,040 Speaker 1: wrap up the episodes at the end kind of in 59 00:04:11,040 --> 00:04:14,320 Speaker 1: a neat bow with an explanation for what Malder and 60 00:04:14,360 --> 00:04:16,760 Speaker 1: Scully had seen. And I said, that's exactly what you 61 00:04:16,839 --> 00:04:20,120 Speaker 1: don't want. You don't want to have the answers. You 62 00:04:20,160 --> 00:04:22,000 Speaker 1: want to be left with wonder, you want to be 63 00:04:22,120 --> 00:04:24,680 Speaker 1: left with ah. You want to be left with your 64 00:04:24,720 --> 00:04:27,920 Speaker 1: own opinions at the end. And it took me a 65 00:04:27,960 --> 00:04:31,880 Speaker 1: real hard sales pitch to get them to understand that. 66 00:04:32,800 --> 00:04:36,919 Speaker 1: With this initial conception in place, Carter brought together writers 67 00:04:37,000 --> 00:04:41,159 Speaker 1: to help develop the show and write episodes. I was 68 00:04:41,240 --> 00:04:45,400 Speaker 1: really lucky to hire two teams of smart guys. Glenn 69 00:04:45,480 --> 00:04:49,000 Speaker 1: Morgan and James Wong were a writing team, uh, and 70 00:04:49,160 --> 00:04:52,520 Speaker 1: then a writing team of Howard Gordon and Alex Gonza, 71 00:04:52,920 --> 00:04:56,000 Speaker 1: who were also too smart guys who went on to 72 00:04:56,080 --> 00:05:00,680 Speaker 1: create Homeland together. I'm glad more gonna it's one of 73 00:05:00,720 --> 00:05:03,960 Speaker 1: the exact producers of The X Files and you're one 74 00:05:04,320 --> 00:05:08,200 Speaker 1: two for. And then the last time Morgan wrote with 75 00:05:08,240 --> 00:05:11,479 Speaker 1: a partner named Jim Wong, who had been friends with 76 00:05:11,560 --> 00:05:15,119 Speaker 1: since high school. We were gonna go on some other show, 77 00:05:15,240 --> 00:05:18,159 Speaker 1: a romantic comedy that was the hit pilot of that season, 78 00:05:18,839 --> 00:05:21,440 Speaker 1: and Peter Roth, who was the head of Fox TV, 79 00:05:21,680 --> 00:05:24,400 Speaker 1: had said watch his pilot I demand that you watch 80 00:05:24,440 --> 00:05:27,520 Speaker 1: his pilot, and so sort of career politics, we go, well, 81 00:05:27,560 --> 00:05:30,080 Speaker 1: we'll watch this pilot the X Files and tell Peter 82 00:05:30,240 --> 00:05:31,839 Speaker 1: thanks for thinking of us, but we're gonna go do 83 00:05:31,920 --> 00:05:34,200 Speaker 1: this other hot show. And uh, Jim and I watch 84 00:05:34,200 --> 00:05:39,240 Speaker 1: Exiles pilot, We're like, WHOA, I want to do this show. Carter, 85 00:05:39,640 --> 00:05:43,080 Speaker 1: along with the two writing teams, developed the Molder and 86 00:05:43,120 --> 00:05:47,600 Speaker 1: Scully arc through different types of stories. Depending on the week, 87 00:05:48,080 --> 00:05:52,800 Speaker 1: it could be a horror, suspense, thriller, or paranormal episode. 88 00:05:53,440 --> 00:05:56,240 Speaker 1: So The X Files from the very beginning was not 89 00:05:56,360 --> 00:05:59,200 Speaker 1: just going to be an UFO alien show. It was 90 00:05:59,279 --> 00:06:02,320 Speaker 1: going to be more than that. And I had actually 91 00:06:02,480 --> 00:06:05,320 Speaker 1: created a marketing package before any of these people came 92 00:06:05,360 --> 00:06:07,960 Speaker 1: on when I turned the pilot and originally to twenty 93 00:06:08,040 --> 00:06:12,039 Speaker 1: Century Fox, spelling out what the show was. So it 94 00:06:12,160 --> 00:06:16,039 Speaker 1: just happened that I was able to pair with the 95 00:06:16,160 --> 00:06:19,839 Speaker 1: right people to bring the idea of making it a 96 00:06:20,040 --> 00:06:24,080 Speaker 1: horror show, a suspense show, a thriller, what have you, 97 00:06:24,320 --> 00:06:27,120 Speaker 1: that it became. Really three fifths of the time it 98 00:06:27,240 --> 00:06:31,400 Speaker 1: was something other than aliens and UFOs. The shows can 99 00:06:31,440 --> 00:06:34,960 Speaker 1: be broken down into two types. The monster of the 100 00:06:35,000 --> 00:06:39,360 Speaker 1: Week shows that are primarily standalons, but which also advanced 101 00:06:39,360 --> 00:06:44,120 Speaker 1: the Molder Scully dynamic and the mythology episodes which run 102 00:06:44,160 --> 00:06:48,680 Speaker 1: throughout the length of the series until the ongoing UFO story. 103 00:06:48,839 --> 00:06:52,560 Speaker 1: We did, I think six mythology episodes typically per season, 104 00:06:52,800 --> 00:06:55,880 Speaker 1: a two parter, three two partners actually, and that kind 105 00:06:55,880 --> 00:07:00,960 Speaker 1: of became our formula. The way modern Scully coached the 106 00:07:01,040 --> 00:07:06,320 Speaker 1: other typically sixteen to nineteen cases was by taking positions, 107 00:07:06,440 --> 00:07:12,640 Speaker 1: by taking hard edged science versus a obdurate and determined 108 00:07:13,080 --> 00:07:17,080 Speaker 1: belief in the paranormal on Moulder side, And it became 109 00:07:17,160 --> 00:07:20,920 Speaker 1: kind of competitive, and it became a really a long 110 00:07:21,480 --> 00:07:26,360 Speaker 1: uh nine years flirtation between the two characters and a 111 00:07:26,440 --> 00:07:30,720 Speaker 1: seduction of sorts. These episodes required the writers to be 112 00:07:30,800 --> 00:07:35,160 Speaker 1: able to articulate both a skeptical and a paranormal explanation 113 00:07:35,360 --> 00:07:40,280 Speaker 1: for each phenomenon investigated by Molder and Scully. For Morgan, 114 00:07:40,600 --> 00:07:43,000 Speaker 1: who had grown up very open to the reality of 115 00:07:43,040 --> 00:07:47,520 Speaker 1: the paranormal, writing from Scully's perspective opened his eyes to 116 00:07:47,600 --> 00:07:51,520 Speaker 1: a new viewpoint. Certainly, working on the X Files, the 117 00:07:51,680 --> 00:07:56,160 Speaker 1: Need to be Scully is the first time that I 118 00:07:56,200 --> 00:07:59,480 Speaker 1: started looking at what's the other side of the story, 119 00:08:00,640 --> 00:08:03,840 Speaker 1: Because you always had to have Muhler's explanation. You have 120 00:08:03,920 --> 00:08:07,560 Speaker 1: to have Scullies explanation, and many times you'd have to 121 00:08:07,600 --> 00:08:10,800 Speaker 1: have an explanation was down the middle. So it was 122 00:08:11,000 --> 00:08:12,760 Speaker 1: the X Files and having to write for Scully that 123 00:08:12,800 --> 00:08:19,400 Speaker 1: I started getting a little more grounded, a little more skeptical. Movies, books, 124 00:08:19,600 --> 00:08:24,040 Speaker 1: and television shows that are inspired by or reference purported 125 00:08:24,080 --> 00:08:28,120 Speaker 1: actual events make a claim on some relation to reality. 126 00:08:29,360 --> 00:08:33,200 Speaker 1: When shows are prefaced by, based on a true story, 127 00:08:33,360 --> 00:08:38,240 Speaker 1: or inspired by actual events, the implication for the audience 128 00:08:38,800 --> 00:08:41,320 Speaker 1: is that what they are consuming is not mere fiction. 129 00:08:42,120 --> 00:08:46,160 Speaker 1: It is given a stamp of some sort of factual legitimacy. 130 00:08:47,000 --> 00:08:49,680 Speaker 1: In a note to open The Da Vinci Code, Dan 131 00:08:49,760 --> 00:08:52,880 Speaker 1: Brown famously wrote that while the characters and plot of 132 00:08:52,920 --> 00:08:56,640 Speaker 1: the book were fiction, the history it referenced was factual. 133 00:08:57,640 --> 00:09:01,920 Speaker 1: This was, to put it mildly, a ratch. Carter had 134 00:09:01,960 --> 00:09:04,439 Speaker 1: to contend with how close he wanted to hue to 135 00:09:04,559 --> 00:09:08,640 Speaker 1: actual cases and the stories that were out there. When 136 00:09:08,679 --> 00:09:12,600 Speaker 1: we first started this show, there was something interesting that happened. 137 00:09:12,760 --> 00:09:17,000 Speaker 1: Fox had bought my pitch, they had liked my outline, 138 00:09:17,240 --> 00:09:20,680 Speaker 1: they had liked the pilot script. We had begun casting, 139 00:09:21,440 --> 00:09:25,840 Speaker 1: and we had filmed the pilot. We had shown the 140 00:09:25,840 --> 00:09:28,960 Speaker 1: pilot to the network. They were very happy with it, 141 00:09:29,480 --> 00:09:32,280 Speaker 1: but they wanted me to put a disclaimer up before 142 00:09:32,720 --> 00:09:37,400 Speaker 1: the show, saying that for the viewer that these are 143 00:09:37,440 --> 00:09:40,559 Speaker 1: all based on actual events. It was as if we 144 00:09:40,559 --> 00:09:44,840 Speaker 1: were creating a kind of documentary in the network's mind 145 00:09:45,040 --> 00:09:47,040 Speaker 1: for the pilot episode. I went along with it, but 146 00:09:47,120 --> 00:09:51,800 Speaker 1: then it's like, I realized that's not what the show is. 147 00:09:52,440 --> 00:09:54,240 Speaker 1: I was trying to create a sense of awe and 148 00:09:54,320 --> 00:09:57,439 Speaker 1: the idea that science doesn't have all the answers, and 149 00:09:57,800 --> 00:10:00,760 Speaker 1: that religion doesn't have all the ans ers, and that 150 00:10:00,800 --> 00:10:03,440 Speaker 1: there are things beyond the pale. I liked all that, 151 00:10:03,600 --> 00:10:06,000 Speaker 1: but I also have to say I come at this 152 00:10:06,280 --> 00:10:11,160 Speaker 1: from more Scully side than Moulder's side, with a science bias. 153 00:10:11,160 --> 00:10:14,920 Speaker 1: I really have a kind of prove it to me philosophy, 154 00:10:15,000 --> 00:10:20,360 Speaker 1: and so really it was me. The thesis was my 155 00:10:20,480 --> 00:10:24,640 Speaker 1: own troubled perspective on what is true and what is not. 156 00:10:26,080 --> 00:10:29,559 Speaker 1: While there were more episodes that were not concerned with UFOs, 157 00:10:30,240 --> 00:10:33,559 Speaker 1: the mythology is what many people associate with the show. 158 00:10:34,720 --> 00:10:37,280 Speaker 1: The X Files did pull from the line of UFO 159 00:10:37,400 --> 00:10:41,800 Speaker 1: folklore that we've been examining centered around government conspiracy and 160 00:10:41,880 --> 00:10:45,200 Speaker 1: cover ups, but it also took from another strain of 161 00:10:45,320 --> 00:10:51,040 Speaker 1: UFO folklore, alien abductions. We looked at alien abductions in 162 00:10:51,120 --> 00:10:54,680 Speaker 1: Season one of Strange Arrivals, and the X Files was 163 00:10:54,800 --> 00:10:59,440 Speaker 1: created during the late evolutionary phase of that narrative. For 164 00:10:59,600 --> 00:11:03,520 Speaker 1: Carter his collaborators, this was the cutting edge of UFO 165 00:11:03,640 --> 00:11:07,080 Speaker 1: studies at the time. There were two things I've been 166 00:11:07,080 --> 00:11:10,800 Speaker 1: reading about UFOs and alien abductions. But also I was 167 00:11:10,840 --> 00:11:16,880 Speaker 1: given just my chance a survey called the Roper Survey, 168 00:11:16,960 --> 00:11:20,040 Speaker 1: which was done by Dr John Mack, who, in the 169 00:11:20,240 --> 00:11:24,760 Speaker 1: UFO afficionado will know well. Mac was a highly regarded 170 00:11:24,800 --> 00:11:29,120 Speaker 1: professor of psychology at Harvard who came to believe, along 171 00:11:29,160 --> 00:11:33,400 Speaker 1: with Bud Hopkins and David Jacobs, that hundreds of thousands, 172 00:11:33,520 --> 00:11:37,880 Speaker 1: if not millions, of people had been abducted by aliens. 173 00:11:37,920 --> 00:11:41,760 Speaker 1: Back to the Roper Survey, and it said that millions 174 00:11:41,760 --> 00:11:47,640 Speaker 1: of Americans believed in the UFO phenomenon, some millions less 175 00:11:48,000 --> 00:11:51,760 Speaker 1: believed they had actually seen a UFO, some millions less 176 00:11:51,760 --> 00:11:55,920 Speaker 1: believed they had had contact, but that there was interest 177 00:11:56,160 --> 00:11:59,240 Speaker 1: in the phenomenon. And so I thought the first thing, 178 00:11:59,240 --> 00:12:01,480 Speaker 1: and I would like to do is play with that 179 00:12:01,640 --> 00:12:05,440 Speaker 1: in a personal way Molder, making moulder sister an abductee, 180 00:12:05,480 --> 00:12:08,880 Speaker 1: which is what his entry was into the world of 181 00:12:08,920 --> 00:12:11,960 Speaker 1: the paranormal. I had kind of three go to guys 182 00:12:12,120 --> 00:12:16,920 Speaker 1: was Dr John mac David Jacobs and Bud Hopkins. Those 183 00:12:17,000 --> 00:12:21,560 Speaker 1: were the three people that I read mostly and I 184 00:12:21,640 --> 00:12:27,360 Speaker 1: had I really developed my sense of all things UFOs 185 00:12:27,400 --> 00:12:37,640 Speaker 1: and abductions through reading their books. This is Carol Rainey 186 00:12:37,760 --> 00:12:42,280 Speaker 1: Bud Hopkins ex wife and former research partner, talking about 187 00:12:42,320 --> 00:12:46,200 Speaker 1: how Hopkins changed the alien abduction narrative from what had 188 00:12:46,240 --> 00:12:49,800 Speaker 1: been developed over more than two decades, starting with the 189 00:12:49,880 --> 00:12:54,600 Speaker 1: alleged abduction of Betty and Barney Hill in the mountains 190 00:12:54,600 --> 00:12:58,440 Speaker 1: of New Hampshire. He is writing added to it was 191 00:12:58,559 --> 00:13:03,920 Speaker 1: that nobody was safe anywhere, that aliens could enter your 192 00:13:03,960 --> 00:13:08,520 Speaker 1: bedroom at night, coming straight through the walls, coming through 193 00:13:08,600 --> 00:13:16,080 Speaker 1: the windows. I mean his view of alien beings in 194 00:13:16,120 --> 00:13:20,600 Speaker 1: the world was that they were godlike. Really they I 195 00:13:20,640 --> 00:13:26,320 Speaker 1: mean ordinary physics did not prohibit them from doing whatever 196 00:13:26,360 --> 00:13:32,920 Speaker 1: they wanted to do to take advantage of people's helplessness, 197 00:13:33,840 --> 00:13:39,400 Speaker 1: and they were the abductees were used in Budd's thought 198 00:13:40,080 --> 00:13:43,840 Speaker 1: in the same way that we observe, you know, wolves 199 00:13:43,960 --> 00:13:48,840 Speaker 1: out on the in the wild, and we experimented on 200 00:13:49,000 --> 00:13:52,560 Speaker 1: them to some degree from afar, and that's what he 201 00:13:52,679 --> 00:13:56,840 Speaker 1: felt the aliens were doing to us. They might put 202 00:13:56,880 --> 00:14:00,679 Speaker 1: tracking devices in us, what's called an implant these days. 203 00:14:01,080 --> 00:14:03,439 Speaker 1: And you know, many of his people came up with 204 00:14:03,480 --> 00:14:10,560 Speaker 1: those implants, partly to add credence to Bud's narrative and 205 00:14:10,840 --> 00:14:15,240 Speaker 1: because that was the story that was becoming increasingly popular 206 00:14:15,880 --> 00:14:20,880 Speaker 1: in mainstream media during the nineteen eighties and nineties. Carter 207 00:14:21,000 --> 00:14:23,800 Speaker 1: had established that a key point in the X Files 208 00:14:23,800 --> 00:14:27,960 Speaker 1: mythology would be that Mulder's sister was abducted by aliens, 209 00:14:28,680 --> 00:14:32,280 Speaker 1: and he had taken the Hopkins mac Jacobs books as 210 00:14:32,320 --> 00:14:36,800 Speaker 1: the source material for alien abductions. So the question was 211 00:14:36,840 --> 00:14:41,040 Speaker 1: how to portray the actual events in the show? How 212 00:14:41,080 --> 00:14:44,760 Speaker 1: is she gonna be abducted? I think we start with 213 00:14:45,560 --> 00:14:50,360 Speaker 1: a lot of what the accepted mif was that it 214 00:14:50,480 --> 00:14:54,000 Speaker 1: was at night, that there was a bright light. You know, 215 00:14:54,040 --> 00:14:58,360 Speaker 1: it's it's real monster movie stuff, really the mythology, and 216 00:14:58,400 --> 00:15:01,560 Speaker 1: then you go, well, people know what it is by 217 00:15:01,600 --> 00:15:04,080 Speaker 1: now because of the Hills story that you know, that 218 00:15:04,200 --> 00:15:08,560 Speaker 1: was a movie of the week. This was the made 219 00:15:08,560 --> 00:15:12,960 Speaker 1: for TV movie. The UFO incident about the Betty and 220 00:15:13,000 --> 00:15:18,240 Speaker 1: Barney Hill story and then Close Encounters is like so huge. 221 00:15:18,560 --> 00:15:22,440 Speaker 1: Everybody knew, you know, the the Barry being abducted is 222 00:15:22,480 --> 00:15:25,560 Speaker 1: just one of the great scenes. And so and what 223 00:15:25,640 --> 00:15:28,000 Speaker 1: can we do different? And you had read some things 224 00:15:28,040 --> 00:15:31,160 Speaker 1: where people had been taken out their window, or so, well, 225 00:15:31,240 --> 00:15:33,400 Speaker 1: let's do that, or let's make something up. How can 226 00:15:33,440 --> 00:15:37,360 Speaker 1: we make it fresh? And it's here that the writer's 227 00:15:37,400 --> 00:15:40,520 Speaker 1: creativity pulled the story a little bit away from the 228 00:15:40,560 --> 00:15:44,920 Speaker 1: abduction narratives that had served as their source material. And 229 00:15:44,960 --> 00:15:48,720 Speaker 1: I think actually that's where the damage to the mythology, 230 00:15:48,840 --> 00:15:51,880 Speaker 1: because you made stuff up because you needed to have 231 00:15:52,000 --> 00:15:55,520 Speaker 1: something different for a TV show. And so people who 232 00:15:55,560 --> 00:15:59,480 Speaker 1: saw this episode came away with a slightly different conception 233 00:15:59,600 --> 00:16:02,080 Speaker 1: of an abduction that had been in the books at 234 00:16:02,080 --> 00:16:07,760 Speaker 1: the time, and the folklore subtly changed. The childhood abduction 235 00:16:07,800 --> 00:16:10,880 Speaker 1: of Molder sister is the er moment of his obsession 236 00:16:10,920 --> 00:16:16,080 Speaker 1: with UFOs. From that event, Carter Morgan and the other 237 00:16:16,120 --> 00:16:20,760 Speaker 1: writers built out the X Files mythology. I had what 238 00:16:20,880 --> 00:16:25,480 Speaker 1: I would consider to be the kind of foundation of 239 00:16:25,520 --> 00:16:28,480 Speaker 1: the mythology that was based in things that anybody could 240 00:16:28,520 --> 00:16:32,560 Speaker 1: read about alien abductions and kind of classic scoopmark stars, 241 00:16:32,600 --> 00:16:36,000 Speaker 1: the triangular shapes, it kind of shape that appeared on 242 00:16:36,040 --> 00:16:39,840 Speaker 1: Scully's back and the pilot episode. So I had the 243 00:16:40,120 --> 00:16:44,160 Speaker 1: ideas that I had taken from all of the accumulated 244 00:16:44,480 --> 00:16:49,960 Speaker 1: science and background on alien abductions, and I created a 245 00:16:50,000 --> 00:16:54,600 Speaker 1: world with the episode. Actually, if you watch the first 246 00:16:54,600 --> 00:16:57,760 Speaker 1: and second episode of The X Files and the season finale, 247 00:16:57,800 --> 00:17:00,600 Speaker 1: which is called the erlen Mere Flash, you really get 248 00:17:00,640 --> 00:17:06,119 Speaker 1: a foundational view of the X Files mythology that was 249 00:17:06,359 --> 00:17:11,159 Speaker 1: established by Chris. You know that Maulder's sister had been abducted, 250 00:17:11,320 --> 00:17:15,000 Speaker 1: and what the background was with Malder, you know. And 251 00:17:15,040 --> 00:17:17,840 Speaker 1: I think those are things that you you have and 252 00:17:17,880 --> 00:17:20,320 Speaker 1: when you're selling a pilot, especially back in those days, 253 00:17:21,040 --> 00:17:25,200 Speaker 1: it's just kind of red meat for executives. And and 254 00:17:25,240 --> 00:17:27,280 Speaker 1: then you get in a room. Nowadays you have to 255 00:17:27,320 --> 00:17:29,760 Speaker 1: have the whole show figured out for five years. But 256 00:17:29,880 --> 00:17:31,719 Speaker 1: back then you gave a piece of paper and this 257 00:17:31,760 --> 00:17:35,440 Speaker 1: is what six episodes we could do, and they okay, 258 00:17:36,119 --> 00:17:38,399 Speaker 1: So it just becomes a process of sitting down and 259 00:17:38,440 --> 00:17:43,360 Speaker 1: going what can it be. Well, we're gonna introduce a 260 00:17:43,400 --> 00:17:47,040 Speaker 1: government conspiracy deep background. So you bring a deep Throat, 261 00:17:47,920 --> 00:17:51,959 Speaker 1: you bring up more UFO stuff. The conspiracy is a 262 00:17:51,960 --> 00:17:56,400 Speaker 1: critical part of the mythology, and in follows iconic characters 263 00:17:56,440 --> 00:18:00,480 Speaker 1: such as the Smoking Man, Deep Throat and the government 264 00:18:00,520 --> 00:18:04,760 Speaker 1: agent Alex Krycheck. I've always been interested in conspiracies, I 265 00:18:04,800 --> 00:18:07,160 Speaker 1: think because I was a child of the Watergate era. 266 00:18:07,880 --> 00:18:11,440 Speaker 1: You know, I was a disbeliever in what our government 267 00:18:11,520 --> 00:18:14,480 Speaker 1: was telling us, and they believer that they were keeping 268 00:18:14,520 --> 00:18:17,560 Speaker 1: things from us. So they fit in perfect with the 269 00:18:17,640 --> 00:18:21,800 Speaker 1: UFO literature, which is all about government, you know, black budget, 270 00:18:22,119 --> 00:18:26,919 Speaker 1: secret operations, and all the reasons there are for the 271 00:18:27,000 --> 00:18:31,600 Speaker 1: government to keep the truth about extraterrestrial life from the 272 00:18:31,600 --> 00:18:34,960 Speaker 1: American public and those who you know, things that are 273 00:18:35,520 --> 00:18:40,359 Speaker 1: you know, scientific, cultural, religious. Uh, it would upend a 274 00:18:40,359 --> 00:18:45,720 Speaker 1: lot of the institutions in society. There's this idea that 275 00:18:45,880 --> 00:18:49,600 Speaker 1: the government has been keeping all this stuff quiet secret 276 00:18:49,720 --> 00:18:54,080 Speaker 1: for their own purposes, and that one day somebody will 277 00:18:54,080 --> 00:18:56,879 Speaker 1: get them to disclose, or there will be reason to 278 00:18:56,960 --> 00:19:00,320 Speaker 1: disclose the truth. I think that's where the Expiles mythology 279 00:19:00,359 --> 00:19:05,520 Speaker 1: took flight from the accepted X Files mythology, and so 280 00:19:05,840 --> 00:19:11,719 Speaker 1: we were imagining the world before disclosure and modern Scully 281 00:19:11,760 --> 00:19:16,679 Speaker 1: as the people seeking to learn the truth. Of course, 282 00:19:16,960 --> 00:19:20,119 Speaker 1: the best laid plans and all of that. No matter 283 00:19:20,160 --> 00:19:23,720 Speaker 1: the amount of planning in foresight, there's always the potential 284 00:19:23,840 --> 00:19:28,640 Speaker 1: for circumstances beyond the creator's control to complicate things. If 285 00:19:28,640 --> 00:19:30,440 Speaker 1: you look at it the first year, there wasn't a 286 00:19:30,480 --> 00:19:32,879 Speaker 1: lot of mythology. I think on the twenty two episodes 287 00:19:33,400 --> 00:19:38,159 Speaker 1: five maybe it wasn't a conscious thing. And January of 288 00:19:38,160 --> 00:19:41,480 Speaker 1: the first season, Jillian became pregnant, so she was going 289 00:19:41,560 --> 00:19:45,040 Speaker 1: to have her baby in September, and so that was like, well, 290 00:19:45,080 --> 00:19:47,320 Speaker 1: she wasn't gonna be able to work on the first 291 00:19:47,359 --> 00:19:50,040 Speaker 1: few episodes that we were filming for a year two. 292 00:19:50,400 --> 00:19:53,040 Speaker 1: We scrambled because we didn't know what to do, how 293 00:19:53,119 --> 00:19:55,280 Speaker 1: to if she was going to be pregnant for the 294 00:19:55,320 --> 00:19:57,920 Speaker 1: whole first part of the second season, how we were 295 00:19:57,920 --> 00:20:01,280 Speaker 1: going to do modern Scully. And we figured I had 296 00:20:01,359 --> 00:20:04,440 Speaker 1: a clever way to do that, a way that actually 297 00:20:04,520 --> 00:20:07,800 Speaker 1: played into the larger storyline. But I actually had a 298 00:20:07,840 --> 00:20:10,080 Speaker 1: network executive saying, I mean, you've gotta get rid of 299 00:20:10,080 --> 00:20:12,720 Speaker 1: her in no uncertain terms, and so you have to 300 00:20:12,800 --> 00:20:16,360 Speaker 1: fight against that. You know, you can't establish these two 301 00:20:16,440 --> 00:20:19,760 Speaker 1: characters and then just break him up because he uh 302 00:20:20,200 --> 00:20:24,560 Speaker 1: doesn't want a pregnant woman working on the show. And 303 00:20:24,600 --> 00:20:27,639 Speaker 1: so we all came up with like Skully's gonna disappear, 304 00:20:28,840 --> 00:20:32,680 Speaker 1: and that really began the mythology, the need to tell 305 00:20:32,760 --> 00:20:36,720 Speaker 1: multiple stories near the end of the first year. We 306 00:20:36,840 --> 00:20:40,720 Speaker 1: never set out to be the serialized show. There was 307 00:20:40,800 --> 00:20:44,280 Speaker 1: necessity due to Jillian's pregnancy that we sort of shaped 308 00:20:44,320 --> 00:20:46,400 Speaker 1: it in the end of the first year to go 309 00:20:46,440 --> 00:20:48,720 Speaker 1: into her disappearing for the first few episodes. In the 310 00:20:48,760 --> 00:21:07,600 Speaker 1: second year, strange arrivals will return after the break. During 311 00:21:07,640 --> 00:21:11,280 Speaker 1: our conversation, Glenn Morrigan told me about one of the 312 00:21:11,359 --> 00:21:14,760 Speaker 1: Monster of the Week episodes that he wrote, and talked 313 00:21:14,760 --> 00:21:18,040 Speaker 1: about how a fictitious story seeing on a television show 314 00:21:18,480 --> 00:21:22,840 Speaker 1: could come to enter people's consciousness as something real. It's 315 00:21:22,880 --> 00:21:27,760 Speaker 1: an example of the larger folklore producing dynamic of popular culture. 316 00:21:28,920 --> 00:21:31,480 Speaker 1: I would get a publication every Monday. It was called 317 00:21:31,480 --> 00:21:34,560 Speaker 1: Science News. It was really a pamphlet, no more than 318 00:21:34,600 --> 00:21:39,560 Speaker 1: ten pages of findings in the world of science that week. 319 00:21:39,800 --> 00:21:41,760 Speaker 1: And so, for example, one week I saw they had 320 00:21:41,760 --> 00:21:44,520 Speaker 1: an article that I think they've broken the record for 321 00:21:44,680 --> 00:21:47,600 Speaker 1: drilling into the greenland ice cores I don't remember a 322 00:21:47,600 --> 00:21:51,639 Speaker 1: mile or whatever. And they pulled out this stuff that 323 00:21:51,720 --> 00:21:54,080 Speaker 1: had not seen the light of day for two fifty 324 00:21:54,119 --> 00:21:58,200 Speaker 1: thousand years. That had just happened. That was a fact. 325 00:21:59,000 --> 00:22:01,520 Speaker 1: And then I go, well, what could be in there? 326 00:22:02,320 --> 00:22:06,120 Speaker 1: What could be in that two? It's like, okay, it's 327 00:22:06,119 --> 00:22:10,360 Speaker 1: a creepy show. What's creepy? Like? I find worms, creepy worms, snakes, 328 00:22:10,440 --> 00:22:12,760 Speaker 1: they don't have arms, they have too many arms, like 329 00:22:12,760 --> 00:22:14,760 Speaker 1: a millipede. Forget it. I don't want to near me. 330 00:22:14,800 --> 00:22:17,479 Speaker 1: And so I'm like, okay, oh, there's these worms. And 331 00:22:17,520 --> 00:22:21,760 Speaker 1: then without two years of evolution, what would that do 332 00:22:21,840 --> 00:22:24,119 Speaker 1: to us? And then that part I would make up. 333 00:22:24,359 --> 00:22:25,959 Speaker 1: I don't remember what it was. It gets into your 334 00:22:26,000 --> 00:22:28,280 Speaker 1: brain and makes you paranoid or some stuff like that. 335 00:22:28,480 --> 00:22:31,320 Speaker 1: So that's how you make an next him. You take 336 00:22:31,359 --> 00:22:35,720 Speaker 1: that science truth and another truth and you try to 337 00:22:35,720 --> 00:22:40,720 Speaker 1: fit them together by making stuff up. Inevitably, people would 338 00:22:40,720 --> 00:22:43,560 Speaker 1: go I read about worms and make it crazy, and 339 00:22:43,600 --> 00:22:46,639 Speaker 1: I'd say, no, no, I made that up, and they no, no, no, 340 00:22:46,680 --> 00:22:48,840 Speaker 1: I read that in a nastro geographic like I know 341 00:22:48,920 --> 00:22:51,320 Speaker 1: you didn't because I made it up. It isn't even 342 00:22:51,320 --> 00:22:53,439 Speaker 1: a thing. It lodged in my head, I just flat 343 00:22:53,440 --> 00:22:56,640 Speaker 1: out made it up. And it always fascinated me how 344 00:22:56,680 --> 00:23:00,520 Speaker 1: often people would say not I read about the ice 345 00:23:00,840 --> 00:23:05,800 Speaker 1: or from Greenland, or the evolutionary traits of these worms. 346 00:23:06,200 --> 00:23:08,760 Speaker 1: I heard about the stuff you made up, and it's true. 347 00:23:09,119 --> 00:23:12,880 Speaker 1: And so when I look at these abduction myths, where 348 00:23:12,920 --> 00:23:15,480 Speaker 1: some of the conspiracy theories that are floating around now 349 00:23:15,840 --> 00:23:19,600 Speaker 1: you can see where there's both that are people are 350 00:23:19,640 --> 00:23:22,320 Speaker 1: believing in fact. There's an X Files where a deep 351 00:23:22,359 --> 00:23:28,120 Speaker 1: throat specifically says a lie is the best delivered sandwich 352 00:23:28,200 --> 00:23:30,480 Speaker 1: between two truths, and I just I'm sure I didn't 353 00:23:30,480 --> 00:23:33,240 Speaker 1: make that up, but that's to me, I always thought 354 00:23:33,240 --> 00:23:37,240 Speaker 1: the best way to go about the mythology. So if 355 00:23:37,960 --> 00:23:42,800 Speaker 1: you know that aliens come at night, and you might 356 00:23:42,800 --> 00:23:45,920 Speaker 1: take some other scientific fact the position of the moon 357 00:23:46,040 --> 00:23:48,919 Speaker 1: or something and make something up, that's that's how you 358 00:23:48,920 --> 00:23:50,760 Speaker 1: did it. That's how I went about it, and I 359 00:23:50,840 --> 00:23:57,840 Speaker 1: see that approach and other myths contemporary. There have been 360 00:23:57,880 --> 00:24:00,879 Speaker 1: other shows that focus more directly on the themes that 361 00:24:00,920 --> 00:24:05,040 Speaker 1: we've been looking at during this season. The History Channel, 362 00:24:05,119 --> 00:24:08,960 Speaker 1: for instance, has a show called Project Blue Book, which 363 00:24:09,000 --> 00:24:12,440 Speaker 1: features a more action ready version of Alan Heinek leading 364 00:24:12,560 --> 00:24:18,040 Speaker 1: UFO investigations. Another show focusing on a highly fictionalized blue 365 00:24:18,040 --> 00:24:22,640 Speaker 1: book style program was Dark Skies, which ran on NBC. 366 00:24:22,760 --> 00:24:29,359 Speaker 1: In its tagline was history as we know It is 367 00:24:29,400 --> 00:24:33,760 Speaker 1: a lie. The show was launched based on the popularity 368 00:24:33,800 --> 00:24:37,320 Speaker 1: of the X Files. It was created by Brent Friedman 369 00:24:37,520 --> 00:24:41,760 Speaker 1: and Bryce Sable. Zabel in particular, is active in the 370 00:24:41,880 --> 00:24:45,600 Speaker 1: UFO scene. I think in the case of Bryce especially, 371 00:24:45,640 --> 00:24:48,640 Speaker 1: but Brent as well, uthology was something that very much 372 00:24:48,680 --> 00:24:52,200 Speaker 1: interested them. And I think that between the two of them, 373 00:24:52,320 --> 00:24:54,399 Speaker 1: and Bryce having done a lot of the table reading 374 00:24:54,440 --> 00:24:56,880 Speaker 1: as it were, and Brent having had one or two 375 00:24:56,920 --> 00:25:00,200 Speaker 1: experiences that he was, that between them, they and it 376 00:25:00,240 --> 00:25:02,359 Speaker 1: came together and figured out this is what they wanted 377 00:25:02,359 --> 00:25:06,119 Speaker 1: to do. I'm Matthew Cressell. I'm the author of the 378 00:25:06,200 --> 00:25:10,920 Speaker 1: Silver Archive Dark Skies on the television series from the 379 00:25:11,000 --> 00:25:15,440 Speaker 1: ninet nineties at the same name. The series follows two agents, 380 00:25:16,040 --> 00:25:20,159 Speaker 1: John Loane Guard and Kim Sayers as they investigate and 381 00:25:20,200 --> 00:25:24,120 Speaker 1: try to foil the activities of the Hive, an alien 382 00:25:24,240 --> 00:25:28,720 Speaker 1: race already among us. The government knows about the aliens 383 00:25:29,119 --> 00:25:31,720 Speaker 1: and is involved in a massive cover up to hide 384 00:25:31,760 --> 00:25:34,560 Speaker 1: from the public their presence and the fact that we 385 00:25:34,600 --> 00:25:38,879 Speaker 1: are actually fighting a kind of covert war against them. 386 00:25:38,920 --> 00:25:43,120 Speaker 1: The show presents an alternative history, with major events such 387 00:25:43,119 --> 00:25:47,080 Speaker 1: as the Kennedy assassination the result of actions taken by 388 00:25:47,119 --> 00:25:53,119 Speaker 1: the Hive. The series begins, perhaps not surprisingly with Roswell. 389 00:25:54,000 --> 00:25:56,840 Speaker 1: Obviously Roswell is the big one, but you know, Roswell 390 00:25:57,119 --> 00:26:00,720 Speaker 1: is uthologies, Jack the Ripper. It's this big thing that 391 00:26:01,000 --> 00:26:04,240 Speaker 1: everybody knows what it is. You can say just that 392 00:26:04,320 --> 00:26:06,520 Speaker 1: word and it evokes imagery. You know, if you say 393 00:26:06,600 --> 00:26:09,040 Speaker 1: Jack the Ripper, people are gonna think, you know, fog 394 00:26:09,040 --> 00:26:13,320 Speaker 1: shrouded London streets, guy walking through the shadows. You say Roswell, 395 00:26:13,480 --> 00:26:18,480 Speaker 1: people think soldiers in the desert, crashed flying saucer, little 396 00:26:18,520 --> 00:26:22,880 Speaker 1: gray aliens thrown across the ground, weird debris. So it's 397 00:26:23,000 --> 00:26:27,160 Speaker 1: I think if you're going to write anything since we'll 398 00:26:27,200 --> 00:26:29,760 Speaker 1: say probably the mid eighties that deals with the UFO 399 00:26:29,840 --> 00:26:32,679 Speaker 1: topic in a big way, Roswell is going to be 400 00:26:32,680 --> 00:26:35,800 Speaker 1: your touchstone. I think what Bryce and Brent do that's 401 00:26:35,840 --> 00:26:38,840 Speaker 1: interesting with Roswell in terms of what Dark Skies does 402 00:26:38,920 --> 00:26:41,680 Speaker 1: with it, is it becomes the starting point of sorts 403 00:26:41,760 --> 00:26:45,000 Speaker 1: for their history in sort of engaging with the phenomenon. 404 00:26:45,480 --> 00:26:47,960 Speaker 1: The other thing that Dark Skies does it's interesting with 405 00:26:48,040 --> 00:26:50,880 Speaker 1: Roswell is in a couple of episodes it brings Jesse 406 00:26:51,040 --> 00:26:56,000 Speaker 1: Marcel It as a supporting character. Remember, Marceau was the 407 00:26:56,080 --> 00:26:59,359 Speaker 1: major at Roswell Army Air Force Base who went to 408 00:26:59,440 --> 00:27:02,879 Speaker 1: mac brown Ussele's ranch and was later photographed with the 409 00:27:02,960 --> 00:27:07,639 Speaker 1: debris he found there. In the nineteen seventies, he was 410 00:27:07,680 --> 00:27:12,240 Speaker 1: tracked down by UFO researcher Stanton Friedman and by then 411 00:27:12,320 --> 00:27:16,119 Speaker 1: his story had changed. It became the foundation for the 412 00:27:16,240 --> 00:27:20,080 Speaker 1: new Roswell narrative that emerged in the late nineteen seventies 413 00:27:20,160 --> 00:27:24,560 Speaker 1: in early nineteen eighties and that continues to evolve today. 414 00:27:25,040 --> 00:27:27,480 Speaker 1: They turned him into a supporting character, which is really 415 00:27:27,520 --> 00:27:31,040 Speaker 1: interesting for them to do. So they used Roswell and 416 00:27:31,119 --> 00:27:33,280 Speaker 1: him to sort of set it up. But it's almost 417 00:27:33,280 --> 00:27:36,200 Speaker 1: in some ways the original sin of the series. It's 418 00:27:36,240 --> 00:27:40,320 Speaker 1: at this point that Freedman and zabels alternate history diverges 419 00:27:40,400 --> 00:27:43,560 Speaker 1: from the one we know. It's made everything wrong in 420 00:27:43,560 --> 00:27:45,880 Speaker 1: that in some respects, at least at the beginning, John 421 00:27:45,920 --> 00:27:48,920 Speaker 1: loewen Gard and Kim Sayers are trying to set right. 422 00:27:49,040 --> 00:27:51,720 Speaker 1: Is bringing this out to the world Roswell is just 423 00:27:51,840 --> 00:27:55,119 Speaker 1: one tiny part of the UFO mythos that Dark Sky's 424 00:27:55,160 --> 00:27:58,520 Speaker 1: the sides they're going to run with. Another aspect of 425 00:27:58,560 --> 00:28:01,719 Speaker 1: the folklore we've looked at that Dark Skies picks up 426 00:28:01,880 --> 00:28:05,399 Speaker 1: is Majestic twelve, and while the show retains m J. 427 00:28:05,560 --> 00:28:09,520 Speaker 1: Twelves role as the deeply mysterious keepers of the UFO secrets, 428 00:28:10,119 --> 00:28:15,480 Speaker 1: it also takes artistic license. Here's Matthew Krazel talking about 429 00:28:15,480 --> 00:28:19,719 Speaker 1: how the show portrays the Majestic twelve. What Dark Skies 430 00:28:19,800 --> 00:28:22,280 Speaker 1: does is interesting with that is, not only are they 431 00:28:22,359 --> 00:28:26,040 Speaker 1: the ones covering everything up, they're at the soldiers on 432 00:28:26,119 --> 00:28:29,479 Speaker 1: the front line fighting the secret war. So they're not 433 00:28:29,760 --> 00:28:33,960 Speaker 1: so much a group of twelve guys sitting in a 434 00:28:34,000 --> 00:28:37,440 Speaker 1: shadowy boardroom somewhere, smoking on their pipes and puffing away 435 00:28:37,480 --> 00:28:41,480 Speaker 1: on cigars. They're the ones controlling the generals and what not, 436 00:28:41,680 --> 00:28:46,480 Speaker 1: fighting this whole secret war. They become the if you 437 00:28:46,520 --> 00:28:48,520 Speaker 1: want to use the term for TV tropes, there, the 438 00:28:48,560 --> 00:28:52,400 Speaker 1: sinister government agency, rather than just being these guys in 439 00:28:52,440 --> 00:28:56,400 Speaker 1: the boardroom, and that's certainly something that separates them, the 440 00:28:56,440 --> 00:28:59,120 Speaker 1: Majestic Twelve of Dark Skies from the Syndicate. For example, 441 00:28:59,200 --> 00:29:03,080 Speaker 1: of the X file us. Friedman and Zabel are also 442 00:29:03,240 --> 00:29:06,800 Speaker 1: much more specific in their references to the UFO folklore. 443 00:29:07,880 --> 00:29:11,600 Speaker 1: One such instance involves a callback to UFO Cover Up Live, 444 00:29:12,040 --> 00:29:15,280 Speaker 1: which we looked at in the last episode. As a 445 00:29:15,320 --> 00:29:19,120 Speaker 1: side note, it's interesting that Kruszel identifies Falcon from the 446 00:29:19,160 --> 00:29:23,480 Speaker 1: show as Doughty. Remember Doughty denies that he was on 447 00:29:23,520 --> 00:29:28,440 Speaker 1: this show anyway. There's a particular reference that Doughty makes 448 00:29:28,640 --> 00:29:32,840 Speaker 1: when he's on UFO Cover Up Live in talking about 449 00:29:32,840 --> 00:29:35,880 Speaker 1: the alien who's a supuzzling an Area fifty one who 450 00:29:35,960 --> 00:29:40,400 Speaker 1: likes strawberry ice cream and listening to Buddhist chance aliens 451 00:29:40,520 --> 00:29:48,720 Speaker 1: enjoyed music, all types of music, especially ancient Tibetan style music. 452 00:29:49,480 --> 00:29:54,640 Speaker 1: And you eat vegetables, they might vegetables, and your favorite 453 00:29:54,840 --> 00:30:02,840 Speaker 1: fish or snack is ice cream, especially strawberry. And there's 454 00:30:02,880 --> 00:30:05,720 Speaker 1: an episode Late and Dark Skies where they've captured one 455 00:30:05,720 --> 00:30:08,360 Speaker 1: of the Grays and the Gray has a craving for 456 00:30:08,400 --> 00:30:10,840 Speaker 1: strawberry ice cream, and one of the characters makes a 457 00:30:10,840 --> 00:30:15,000 Speaker 1: comment about how strange that is. It becomes an almost 458 00:30:15,000 --> 00:30:17,120 Speaker 1: in a way, it becomes a very kind of meta 459 00:30:17,760 --> 00:30:21,160 Speaker 1: in that kind of postmodern way that you know, everything 460 00:30:21,240 --> 00:30:26,280 Speaker 1: is influencing everything. Dark Skies was canceled after just one 461 00:30:26,440 --> 00:30:31,400 Speaker 1: of an anticipated five seasons. It didn't achieve the ratings 462 00:30:31,480 --> 00:30:34,520 Speaker 1: or cultural haft of The X Files, but it was 463 00:30:34,560 --> 00:30:38,040 Speaker 1: a primetime network show and it did put these concepts 464 00:30:38,040 --> 00:30:41,680 Speaker 1: and themes in front of a mainstream audience. Things like 465 00:30:41,800 --> 00:30:46,200 Speaker 1: Dark Skies make great entertainment, don't get me wrong, but 466 00:30:46,360 --> 00:30:49,440 Speaker 1: I think that they add to in a weird way, 467 00:30:49,480 --> 00:30:52,720 Speaker 1: add to the mudding of the waters in that once 468 00:30:52,760 --> 00:30:55,920 Speaker 1: it enters the pop culture consciousness. You know, if you 469 00:30:56,040 --> 00:30:59,680 Speaker 1: say Area fifty one to somebody, they're gonna think, you know, 470 00:31:00,040 --> 00:31:04,680 Speaker 1: lying Saucers UFOs. Same thing if you mentioned Dulcie Bass 471 00:31:04,840 --> 00:31:08,520 Speaker 1: or Roswell, for example, And it becomes almost in a way, 472 00:31:08,560 --> 00:31:11,720 Speaker 1: sort of an agent for putting those ideas out there. 473 00:31:12,200 --> 00:31:15,360 Speaker 1: And I don't think necessarily through in that case, through 474 00:31:15,400 --> 00:31:18,920 Speaker 1: any kind of deliberate act on anybody's part. It's just 475 00:31:19,040 --> 00:31:21,720 Speaker 1: something that's in the ether and it's out there. It's 476 00:31:21,720 --> 00:31:23,920 Speaker 1: an idea that's just waiting for somebody to come and 477 00:31:23,960 --> 00:31:26,960 Speaker 1: pick it up and run with it. Robbie Graham and 478 00:31:27,080 --> 00:31:30,880 Speaker 1: his books Over Screen Saucers talks about hypernormalization and the 479 00:31:30,960 --> 00:31:35,320 Speaker 1: idea that you things become the brain becomes so stimulated. 480 00:31:35,360 --> 00:31:37,280 Speaker 1: The idea of the basic idea of it is that 481 00:31:37,280 --> 00:31:42,680 Speaker 1: that the brain can't tell reality from perception. Perception becomes reality, 482 00:31:42,680 --> 00:31:44,600 Speaker 1: and you can't tell fact from fiction. And I think 483 00:31:44,600 --> 00:31:49,640 Speaker 1: that that is a great descriptor for where uthology stands today. 484 00:31:52,280 --> 00:31:57,880 Speaker 1: The X Files peaked in the Nielsen ratings at number nineteen. 485 00:31:59,120 --> 00:32:03,240 Speaker 1: Shows above them included the blockbusters Seinfeld and e R 486 00:32:04,000 --> 00:32:08,320 Speaker 1: in decades long franchises like Monday Night Football, Sixty Minutes 487 00:32:08,680 --> 00:32:14,640 Speaker 1: and Dateline NBC. The group also includes the show's Veronica's Closet, 488 00:32:15,280 --> 00:32:20,720 Speaker 1: Union Square, and Just Shoot Me. Much like Star Trek, 489 00:32:21,160 --> 00:32:24,720 Speaker 1: the X Files reach has extended well beyond its initial run, 490 00:32:25,160 --> 00:32:27,560 Speaker 1: and it has become a shorthand for interest in the 491 00:32:27,640 --> 00:32:33,360 Speaker 1: paranormal and in particular UFOs. Think about the poster in 492 00:32:33,480 --> 00:32:36,640 Speaker 1: Molder's office with a photo of a flying saucer and 493 00:32:36,720 --> 00:32:41,160 Speaker 1: the message I want to believe, the phrases the truth 494 00:32:41,280 --> 00:32:45,920 Speaker 1: is out there and trust no one. Even the distinctive 495 00:32:46,000 --> 00:32:50,400 Speaker 1: theme music signals UFOs. What makes the X Files so 496 00:32:50,640 --> 00:32:54,840 Speaker 1: iconic certainly the quality of writing and acting in the 497 00:32:54,920 --> 00:32:58,720 Speaker 1: Molder and Scully partnership. But I think it also has 498 00:32:58,720 --> 00:33:00,600 Speaker 1: to do with the way they kept or a certain 499 00:33:00,720 --> 00:33:05,880 Speaker 1: nuance about the UFO myths in American culture, a combination 500 00:33:05,920 --> 00:33:08,960 Speaker 1: of conspiracy in the sense that while things can be 501 00:33:09,040 --> 00:33:12,920 Speaker 1: found out, they can't actually be known, and maybe things 502 00:33:12,960 --> 00:33:17,560 Speaker 1: aren't really in control. Even if you are a UFO skeptic, 503 00:33:18,240 --> 00:33:21,440 Speaker 1: it speaks to a narrative that makes sense, and because 504 00:33:21,480 --> 00:33:26,680 Speaker 1: it makes sense, it indoors. I think people look up 505 00:33:26,680 --> 00:33:29,480 Speaker 1: into the sky at night and wonder if the truth 506 00:33:29,560 --> 00:33:32,240 Speaker 1: is out there, if there are other civilizations. So it 507 00:33:32,320 --> 00:33:35,960 Speaker 1: has a kind of human component to it, and the 508 00:33:36,000 --> 00:33:41,080 Speaker 1: idea that the aliens have in many cases humanoid qualities, 509 00:33:41,120 --> 00:33:44,280 Speaker 1: and that they actually seem to have some steak and 510 00:33:44,400 --> 00:33:49,240 Speaker 1: humanity and they have some either good or bad purposes 511 00:33:49,280 --> 00:33:52,120 Speaker 1: for being here. It's our fear of the other that 512 00:33:52,280 --> 00:33:55,280 Speaker 1: is natural, and in this case, I think it's the 513 00:33:55,360 --> 00:33:59,440 Speaker 1: fear of a another that has either a good or 514 00:33:59,520 --> 00:34:04,000 Speaker 1: evil intent. What is the source of the fear that 515 00:34:04,080 --> 00:34:08,360 Speaker 1: finds its expression in Ufo folklore? Why does this story 516 00:34:08,440 --> 00:34:12,520 Speaker 1: continue to maintain public interest when other paranormal subjects have 517 00:34:12,640 --> 00:34:23,440 Speaker 1: ebbed in popularity. Next time on Strange Arrivals. Strange Arrivals 518 00:34:23,600 --> 00:34:26,040 Speaker 1: is a production of I Heart three D Audio and 519 00:34:26,080 --> 00:34:29,360 Speaker 1: Grimm and Mild from Aaron Mankey. This episode was written 520 00:34:29,360 --> 00:34:32,600 Speaker 1: and hosted by Toby Ball and produced by Miranda Hawkins 521 00:34:32,719 --> 00:34:37,040 Speaker 1: and Josh Thame, with executive producers Alex Williams, Matt Frederick, 522 00:34:37,360 --> 00:34:41,080 Speaker 1: and Aaron Mankey, and special thanks to Wendy Connors, creator 523 00:34:41,120 --> 00:34:44,680 Speaker 1: of the Faded Discs archive of UFO related audio on 524 00:34:44,880 --> 00:34:48,359 Speaker 1: archive dot org. Learn more about Strange Rivals over at 525 00:34:48,360 --> 00:34:52,239 Speaker 1: Grimm and Mild dot com, and find more podcasts from 526 00:34:52,239 --> 00:34:54,879 Speaker 1: my Heart Radio by visiting the I Heart Radio app, 527 00:34:55,239 --> 00:34:58,560 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. 528 00:35:03,000 --> 00:35:03,360 Speaker 1: Step