X-Files "NetPickers Guide"

By: Kymberlee Ricke 
Well, here it is. The first draft of the ongoing "Netpickers Guide to The X- Files". Thanks to all who wrote in with 
their netpicks. For those of you who can't stand to see a wonderful and well-loved show picked apart mercilessly - 
abort now. Also, be warned! This Guide contains *SPOILERS* and this is the only warning you will get. As I 
alluded to before, the contributors love this show and we're doing this so that the show can improve. Call it, 
constructive criticism. Obviously we aren't out just to slam the show. People who hate it that much wouldn't be
watching closely enough or often enough to catch most of these. For the most part, it looks like it will be hard to 
attribute a netpick to a single contributor, since many people are sending in the same thing in different wording. 
What will be credited are original explanations that the editor feels are...well..."plausable". Or at least worth 
getting input about.

So, send in your netpicks and if you see one here you think you might be able explain - explain it. I'll update and 
repost this every two weeks or so, starting after the season 2 opener. Also, let me know if you want season 2 to 
be in it's own file or appended to this one.

Here it is, making it's debut...

********** The Netpickers' Guide to _The X-Files_**************

Pilot:
If Mulder lost nine minutes, and Scully lost nine minutes, and the car lost nine minutes, how come Mulder's watch 
didn't lose nine minutes?

Deep Throat:
In DT when one of the MIB's removes the magazine from Scully's gun , there is only one round in the magazine. 
Something tells me you would expect them to have more then 1 rnd in the magazine. Unless she had been 
shooting at street signs as they drove down the road :-)

Shadows:
Not only did Graves die on the 5th, and Scully journal in the next ep was the 4th, but in the security video where 
Lauren Kyte was attacked but the isphahan it was dated 09/22/93 (you guys even have the dates backwards:-) 
even though it was supposed to be about 2 weeks AFTER Graves had died.I can only guess they mean 
10/22/93.....

Ice:
When Mulder points the gun at the dog you hear his cocking the hammer on the gun. The Glock 19 has an 
internal hammer so unless it makes that noise when you depress the first stage of the trigger...(having never shot 
the glock before I can't say for sure.. Anyone???....) 

Darkness Falls:
1. Spinney goes up the mountain to rescue his Mulder, Scully and the Ranger. No problems with his vehicle. Then 
when they go down the mountain, they get a flat because those spikes are in the road. If any terrorists are in the 
woods, the bugs are going to get them. So, where did the spikes come from? Did the bugs set them?

2. Why did Spinney get killed by the bugs when he was standing in the headlights of the car in "Darkness Falls"

My guess is that the bugs began to swarm on his unlit side, he panicked, and left the path of the headlights. The 
bugs did also seem FAR more aggressive when not in an enclosed space... hmm, this might have something to do 
with air currents allowing pheromones to spread more freely thus promoting swarming, or perhaps the breeze 
would remove waste byproducts faster...

3. Why DIDN'T they build a fire?

I could believe that this might never occur to an FBI agent, but the park ranger (or the ecoterrorist, or the 
loggers...) certainly SHOULD have thought of fire. Perhaps they feared burning down the forest?

4. We may also want to mention strange special effects or anomalies. For example, when they are riding in the 
jeep down the hill it looks like there's another vehicle following them. I think this is a reflection off the camera 
lens and it looks pretty weird.

Eve:
1. Where did they put the blood they drained out of the bodies? And what was the point in the neck wounds? Was 
this a plot device to throw us off track?

I think Mulder mentioned that the first murder occlude right before it rained and the blood was washed away. But 
if that was the case. why wasn't the body soaking wet? I'm not sure if there was a mention of the blood 
disappearing in the case of the second father. The neck wounds were the points from which the blood left the 
bodies.

2. If Tina Simmons had the Eve-strength to get her father into the swing without leaving signs of a struggle, 
how'd Mulder manage to restrain her with one arm and Cindy with the other?

3. Sally Kendrick, the adult Eve said she had *extra* chromosomes (aneuplody) of normal chromosome sets (I 
forget which ones she said... but it doesn't matter) which is absolutely FATAL (in higher animals) except for X, 
13,18 and/or 21, all of which lead to severe retardation. Multiple extra chromosomes would result in spontaneous 
abortion of the fetus very early in development... long before birth.

I don't know about you all, but that jives with my genetics class. Not only should they have not been super-
intellegent, they shouldn't have been born!

Ghost in the Machine:
How did the Eurisko computer turn on Scully's machine? It takes a mechanical switch to turn on a computer.

Well, actually, as far as Scully's computer turning itself on in The Ghost In The Machine (while I thought the 
episode was rather hokey, and I must admit I complained about this myself), I have seen devices that you can 
hook up to your computer that will turn it on (or off, presumably ) remotely. I suppose this is for travelling 
corporate-types, or people who are running a BBS (so that they can reset it if it locks up) or some such
thing. Anyways, such devices _do_ exist (although ominously, I can't find any in the catalogs I have on hand), 
though I find it difficult to believe that Scully would: 
(a) have one on her system, and 
(b) have her machine autoboot to a terminal-esque program anyways.
(Then again, maybe _PC Anywhere_ would do the trick -- a computer would have little problem trying all 
permutations of a password).
Opinions?

(Much other speculation not included. If you want to continue on this one take it to comp.* :)

Space:
1. If Dr. Scully is able to tell the paramedics to give Belt 10 mg of something-or-another, and warns Mulder of an 
aneurysm, how come when they first find Belt she just stands there instead of giving first aid?" She should have 
been authoritative before and after the break.

2. Why did Mulder call for a Doctor with Scully present in Space?

3. Aren't hospital windows made so that people *can't* jump out of them?

Young at Heart:
1. Why did Mulder, a trained psychologist, and another psychologist confuse Multiple Personality Syndrome with 
Schizophrenia in Young at Heart. (That was Young at heart wasn't it?)

2. The Kidnappers use Scully's Cellular phone and Mulder says they can't trace it.

Wrong. :) They can easily triangulate the call fairly quickly. The NSA maybe but not the FBI agents. I mean have 
you ever tried fox hunting :-) someone ?? Maybe if they were on the phone for a few hours you could send the 
agents out with a scanner type device, plus you need the freq its operating on.. I wasn't to into tech babble but its 
not that simple. Plus the signal is oh.. however the signal is relayed though those towers so maybe the phone 
company could tell you where it travelled though(the signal) but I find it unlikely...

3. When Scully is trying to convince Jack to be Jack and not Dupree, she reminds him of his birthday - Feb 23, 
1957. Then, when she is looking at the "Happy 35th" watch, she says that she gave it to him 3 years ago, which 
would be 1991. If Jack Willis was born in 1957, he would have only been 34 in 1991, not 35. Did I do the math 
wrong or did anyone else notice this?

4. If Jack was a diabetic then why did it take so long for him to go into a coma without insulin. I didn't keep track 
of the number of hours/days since he was "revived", but it was several days. And there was a brief bit of dialogue 
that he had passed his medical and psychological tests with flying colors. How can you pass without the results of 
blood and urine tests? If this was a "FBI approved" doctor who had the agent's history, wouldn't s/he have asked 
Jack how his diabetes was getting along which would have been a clue to the dude inhabiting Jack's body that his 
new body had a problem he had to deal with?

5. "Dupree" cut the fingers off his old body in order to get his wedding ring. Why did it perfectly fit his "new" 
body?

Roland:
Can a human being really hold onto a grill by the fingertips for as long as a few seconds in a thousand-mile-an-
hour wind?

Erlenmeyer Flask:
Did anyone do a freeze-frame on the sign glimpsed briefly during the opening car chase of The Erlenmeyer Flash? 
It says: "Vancouver Drydock Company Ltd." Oops!

And then there was the CN (Canadian National) engine pulling the train, also seen during the chase...

############

And there it is! Send any additions, solutions etc... to kkaricke@delphi.com.

See you in a couple of weeks!

Kymberlee