!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!
(This Blog Contains Spoilers)
As I begin this blog I am going to warn you that there are spoilers entail for ‘The X-files’. In the beginning months of 2016 I have certainly experienced a very nostalgic feeling with all of the old shows, and all of the old movies beginning to reappear. It was truly exciting to hear that FOX had agreed to bring back ‘The X-files’ for a six episode run and then it was said that these six episodes were all that the fans were going to be getting. However, towards the end of this six episode run, a few different things happened. The first thing I noticed was it was only saying ‘Season Finale’ instead of what should’ve read ‘Series Finale’. This excited me to see that perhaps FOX was doing a test run to see if these six episodes were going to be enough to bring that flame back and breath some more life into the show to see if it could be completely revived. The second thing that I noticed was that there were two new agents introduced into the mix at about episode three. The agents possess very similar characteristics to both Mulder and Scully, so what is the potential here? The last episode had Mulder very close to death due to a contagion break out and a ship appearing above the car that they were driving and it slowly fades to black. So obviously FOX has more than enough intentions to bring back more episodes for another ‘partial’ season. The intention is to have the fans begin to speculate about where exactly are they taking this particular storyline? While I’m excited about the return of a Season 2.0 for the X-files I have some questions myself.
1) Most of the original actors agreed to come back for the ‘rebooting’ (and I use that term loosely) for ‘The X-files’ television show. Chris Carter the original creator and writer for ‘The X-files’ was back behind the helm again as well and why wouldn’t he be? I have a tendency to give the show a lot more merit and a little more clout when you have the original creator and writer returning to the show. This wasn’t something that was drafted by someone at the network, after taking away all of the creative rights to the show from Chris Carter and just going with it. The writer knows the characters, knows how they feel, what kind of world they live in, and can more accurately describe everything going on around them since he had done most of the world building. Not to say that any of the writers’ that are working on the show are incompetent just without Chris I think that it would’ve been a little awkward to those who didn’t fully understand his intentions or creations when he made the X-files. But my question is, are these returning characters going to stick around? Or are we only going to be seeing them for a short while to help establish another storyline for a newer generation? This is where I begin to get scared.
2) While I realize it is great to see the ‘X-files’ returning to the airwaves and to see Mulder and Scully chasing the truth around again. I would also have to say the fact the timeline has remained consistent with not only the amount of years passing by, but also because the characters are aging and have grown even without them appearing for over twenty years. Obviously the characters are not going to be as rambunctious, or as willing to be able to take the beating that they did when they were younger, so are we looking at a ‘potential cookie-cutter’ set of characters being introduced to replace them so that the X-files can continue on? I winced at the fact of how close the similarity was to Mulder and Scully and how they even looked like them. Mulder during the course of the show even broke the wall a little bit, and asks the new agents “Have we met before?” I chuckled at this because I think it was the writers’ attempting to cope with what they were trying to do. However, that is what partially killed the X-files back in the early turn of 2000 and two thousand one when the show officially was taken off the air. David Duchovny left the show, while Gillian Anderson remained in it and put Scully into a softer situation dealing with the birth of her and Mulder’s kid but the overall story was affected and changed. What it had started out being, turned into a strictly Sci-fi kind of story and it didn’t have nearly the same effect with it. Even with the changing of agents that went through the X-files it didn’t hold quite the clout with it in the shows final running.
I honestly don’t have a solution to this, but I think If Chris Carter provided some more world building on why Mulder and Scully pass the torch even after they’ve come back to the FBI for the short jaunt I think it would certainly help the series out instead of one of the characters just suddenly leaving and even the audience is left wondering what happened to the story. But, I think that even the characters saw the writing on the wall when it comes to a passing of the torch. The agents took under their wing the respectful agent that was most like their personality and provided them some ‘helpful advice’. Again, I won’t go too much into it but I think that if done right I think that the X-files could make a strong return chasing new conspiracies, and adding a whole new level of storyline coupled with today’s events.
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The next one I was excited to see coming back was that of ‘Ghostbusters’. Now, this particular ‘reboot’ I have covered in another blog, and my thoughts and ideas on that. However, on March 3rd they introduced the trailer for the third movie. BUT! At about seven seconds in or so, they give credence to the old team thirty years ago saving New York, and now they are saying that a ‘new team’ will be responding to the call. So is this a reboot? Or is this a continuation of the story? I’m sure if you follow me regularly on Facebook you saw my post on whether or not it was a reboot and I’ve had some hearty discussions on there and I’m all for them! I love knowing others opinions and talking with others. Many discussions I’ve had with people had opened my eyes. Now, before we continue any further with the blog I’d like to clarify a couple of things. I would like to clarify ‘reboot’ and ‘soft reboot’.
Reboot: In serial fiction, to reboot means to discard all continuity in an established series in order to recreate its characters, timeline and backstory from the beginning.[1][2] The term is used with respect to various different forms of fictional media such as comic books, television series, video games, and films among others.[1] (As defined by Wikipedia)
Soft Reboot: A soft reboot is keeping all of the continuity of the original ideas and concepts. It just makes it to where you don’t need to see the original films, books, series, etc. to understand the new plot that they are beginning at with the new production. So essentially the new ‘Ghostbusters’ and ‘The X-files’ could be considered perhaps a ‘Soft Reboot.’
I have a hard time thinking that with the ‘soft reboot’ of Ghostbusters I am expecting that with both Dan Ackroyd (Original writer and co-creator of Ghostbusters), and Ivan Reitman (Original director of both films) that this movie will not disappoint. I am also beginning to wonder if Paul Feig isn’t out to troll the rest of the internet by releasing things that he wants people to think are relevant and then blow everyone away in the theater with this movie with it possibly being a standalone or continuation in the ‘Ghostbusters’ franchise. High hopes I suspect, but in the same instance I am remaining hopeful about it. Ackroyd had commented that he wanted to build the Ghostbusters Universe similar to how Marvel built the cinematic universe revolving around all factions and stories that happen much like the comic books. So again, I can only comment that much on the new Ghostbusters since you can’t read too much into trailers since some industries and studios purposely build the trailers to deceive those who are adamantly watching to give them a false sense into what is actually going to happen. I would love to see a passing of the torch film that unites the old Ghostbusters, with the new Ghostbusters. See the boys in grey go out on top with one more world save. They could definitely build a story around the death of Egon, or even start it at the funeral where the three of them decide to close up shop because of the loss of their beloved team member. Again, it’s all speculation at this point but I remain hopeful that Ackroyd and Reitman (Being the executive producers on the film) will not let the film dive bomb. Once I see the new ‘Ghostbusters’ movie in July expect a blog on that.
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So! I haven’t lost you! That’s always a good thing! So I guess the topic I’m really trying to drive home here is a common theme. A ‘passing of the torch’ moment. When do we as writers decide when a good time is to pass the torch to other characters? Or are we going to decide on when the series will it. Are we going to kill off the main characters, are we going to eliminate the concept and everything that had to deal with the world building, or are we going to decide that the world is intriguing enough that we need to pass it off to a younger, more compatible character that is trained by the original character you designed and nurtured. I’ve had a character that I created over ten years ago in the law enforcement field. I have talked about him in a few different blogs and how much he’s meant to me. However, he is beginning to get into his mid-forties now. Don’t get me wrong, for what the character does he is still able to do his job great. However, to keep him realistic he’s began to develop health issues in relations to the field of which he is in, law enforcement. The character has whispered to me on more than one occasion that he would like to write his memoirs for his final act in my books. He has told me he would like to helm the pen of course to write them and at the end of writing them that would be it. He would be done. I agreed to this as I know a lot of the personal struggles he is beginning to have, and take on. A lot of this is covered in the new novel that I’m currently writing about him. But this also got me to thinking as well about the future for the world that I’ve spent so many years building with him. It’s hard to move on and think about forgetting everything that he had hands in with or he has touched.
As much fun as I would have with the introduction of a new generation, creating another cop character like Tal I don’t think I’d ever be able to capture the same essence. Tal in a lot of ways WAS me, and the way he acted made judgements early on was all a reflection on me. I wouldn’t want to create another ‘cookie-cutter’ character due to the fact of that. I wouldn’t want someone picking up a book and go ‘Wow. Tal Hunter squared’. For the amount of years that I’ve written about Tal and his adventures it’d be hard to duplicate everything he experienced and try to make another character with as much time and effort put into him. Tal has come a long ways since he was first introduced as a beat cop and I’ve explored the option of maybe going back and writing a few side stories involving him and what exactly he encountered to become the way he is. But I’m rambling. Sometimes it would pay off to start with a fresh slate, or even continue on in the verse with different characters. JK Rowling has talked about how easy it would be for her to return to the world of Harry Potter and continue on with various stories in his realm without directly using him. She had taken a break from his world and done a few other novels. What characters do you have or used that passed a torch to either ones that could accept the responsibility or was it a passing of the legacy of the name on? Or did you end the series once you got done with the character and it was truly indeed a final curtain call. Please leave a comment below and share with everyone else!
I apologize for the length of the blog but wanted to discuss two different examples that have come up lately of passing the torch. Thank you for reading this, and have a great day!
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