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The X-Files has made me nostalgic for a time I never experienced

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Re: The X-Files has made me nostalgic for a time I never experienced

#201

Post by ethbr1 »

jghn wrote: post #146
NoSalt wrote: post #24

The X-Files was the right show at the right time; a "bubble" of the '90s, if you will. The internet and mobile technology was nascent. The world was getting bigger, but was still quite "small". I definitely feel quite privileged to have lived through this time, and enjoy all things '90s quite a bit. Any, and I mean any, attempt to remake this show is doomed to failure, and I wish they would just stop. Now, if you wil…

The one thing about that era that has always seemed unique is that for people who lived it, a few years was a very big deal. Even now that I'm much older, talking to people in my age range it still blows my mind how different people's life experiences were just due to be 2-3 years different in age. Especially for anything tech oriented. Talk to people who were computer science majors in the 90s, you'll find that thei…

In retrospect, nobody remembers the exact date of an invention/product.

In the moment, there's a sharp "time before it existed" and "time after it existed."

I.e. late 2006, there was no mass market iPhone-like device; late 2007, there was

Re: The X-Files has made me nostalgic for a time I never experienced

#202

Post by ethbr1 »

bilegeek wrote: post #144
ErroneousBosh wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't say it was "derivative", although it was clearly made by people who had enjoyed The X-Files, and Twin Peaks. I loved the trick with the colour grading. Won't say more because spoilers, if you know you know.

Fringe definitely handled the continuing storyline much better. The way they blend in, then transition from, the monster-of-the-week format is excellent writing. It did put a deadline on the story, something which the X-Files writers seemed allergic to as the series began aging.

Worth remembering that both the X-Files and Babylon 5 premiered in the same year (1993).

TV science fiction was just beginning the transition from "monster of the week" to season+ long pre-written plot arcs.

Twin Peaks was only a few years earlier (1990), which pioneered(?) bringing the hitherto only soap opera and family drama continuous storyline to other genres.

TNG is indicative of this too, with the adaptation of season-long plotting between 1-2 (little), 3 (some), and 4+ (more).

Which is to say when the X-Files premiered, having a series-long plan of any sort was still a novel idea in TV scifi.

Re: The X-Files has made me nostalgic for a time I never experienced

#203

Post by ethbr1 »

krapp wrote: post #142
bityard wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, I for one would not be disappointed at a sequel or continuation of Firefly, as long as they figure out a way to bring Wash back from the dead and Joss Whedon has absolutely nothing at all to do with it.

I feel like I'm the only person who didn't really vibe with Firefly. I usually like the "space Western" motif but Firefly was so broad and over the top with it that it just seemed silly to me.

Firefly is "Western" in the same way that 1960s spaghetti westerns (and arguably even John Ford's) were.

Which is to say they used a facsimile of a lawless frontier to tell stories about ideologically stark, independent characters.

Less cactus, more open carry.

Re: The X-Files has made me nostalgic for a time I never experienced

#204

Post by ethbr1 »

GoodOldNe wrote: post #172
krapp wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're going to, because there is no property that will not be milked for nostalgia. Although honestly, it could work if they played into the cynicism and uncertainty of the modern UFO phenomenon. If the "conspiracy" is a hall of mirrors comprised of psyops, lies, grift and folklore and the truth is something very weird exists but the government doesn't know what it is. Establish a "post-truth" narrative where the o…

They're already working on it: https://www.tvline.com/news/the-x-files-reboot-ryan-coogler-...

Also Fringe, which captures every plot point parent suggested (salted with a heavy dose of post-9/11).

Re: The X-Files has made me nostalgic for a time I never experienced

#205

Post by saltcured »

kstrauser wrote: post #166
saltcured wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be interesting to hear anecdotes about whether FBI agents were being issued or were finding it worth purchasing their own notebooks, cell phones, for use in the field back then! Anecdotes about what we thought was affordable or common place in our neighborhoods isn't very relevant to whether the tech was available for enterprises and workers who needed it. With no insider knowledge, I can only guess whether…

I can't speak to the FBI, but I was in the military at the time and almost no one had a personal laptop. Our department got one in 1994 that we could share around the office. I would be gobsmacked to hear that the FBI were given the budget for laptops and cell phones back then. Remember also that 2G didn't meaningfully have data until the very late 90s. Its first "data" offering was SMS, which was pay-per-message. No…

This is quite the tangent, but you could use regular analog modems with AMPS analog cell phones. They actually did circuit-switched analog like a wire replacement.

And I used my first 2G phone as a modem to dial up my work modem bank. I believe this was on Pac Bell Wireless, before Cingular. In this GSM scenario, the phone itself had a serial port accepted modem control commands. My computer still saw it like a normal modem call, but as far as I know the digital stream was sent over the air and something on the telco side terminated it with an analog modem that called my work number over POTS lines.

These were slow, somewhere in the 2400-9600 bps range.

It was a capability designed into the networks, since dial-up was so important back then. You generally just had to have the right adapter cable that split out the serial (or USB) from your phone's proprietary multi-pin port.

Re: The X-Files has made me nostalgic for a time I never experienced

#206

Post by saltcured »

Scroll_Swe wrote: post #187
saltcured wrote: post #90

I think it's pretty funny to call out the clothing as stylish. As far as I remember, Mulder's suit was meant to look like the cheap and ill-fitting suit that a low-level, young government employee would buy for a dress code and because he didn't want to think about clothing. And so much of the environment was slightly strange to US viewers, I think, because it was mostly filmed in the Pacific Northwest and Vancouver,…

>As far as I remember, Mulder's suit was meant to look like the cheap and ill-fitting suit that a low-level, young government employee would buy for a dress code and because he didn't want to think about clothing. 1000% times better than what people are wearing today. Today is so hoodified you have office workers in sneakers. The white shirt, suit and trench looks so good. ALSO people where not as obese. This has of…

His uniform was pretty much the federal worker equivalent of the off-the-rack oxford shirt and chinos for a corporate cubical drone like in Office Space.

Yes, the tech world brought "casual everyday" to the office. But, ironically, the SF tech scene is full of designer t-shirts and jeans, so the obscenely rich and/or sartorial types can still signal their elite status among casual wear...

The Mulder equivalent today would be wearing a clearance rack hoodie from the megamart, rather than the hand-woven, artificially distressed version from this year's runway show.

Re: The X-Files has made me nostalgic for a time I never experienced

#207

Post by saltcured »

CamelCaseCondo wrote: post #179
kstrauser wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't speak to the FBI, but I was in the military at the time and almost no one had a personal laptop. Our department got one in 1994 that we could share around the office. I would be gobsmacked to hear that the FBI were given the budget for laptops and cell phones back then. Remember also that 2G didn't meaningfully have data until the very late 90s. Its first "data" offering was SMS, which was pay-per-message. No…

This strikes me as weird. In 92/93/94 I was on packet radio, a ham equivalent of digital lora which used hopping to get you to neighbouring countries. Most had 1200 baud, some 9600. I downloaded executables from bbs’es over the air and chatted with likeminded folks. Around that time we also had the first guest lectures about software defined radio with proof of concepts. I find it impossible to believe that a bunch o…

Right, the capabilities were there. One question is what was realistic for an FBI agent relegated to the basement. I agree with the other poster that Mulder probably wouldn't receive government issued packet radios or even a laptop. He probably got an old IBM electric typewriter to go with his limbo office.

But, what was his pay? Could he have decided to equip himself, much like US servicemen were known to upgrade their own body armor, GPS, etc. in recent decades? The Lone Gunmen side characters surely must have known about all this stuff, and his character could have been informed of the options.

And, in the timeframe of the show, I know that US college professors and various "creatives" were buying the Apple PowerBook and using the online services I mentioned. They were not the executive class in terms of pay or prestige. But they saw the value, and prioritized the spend from their own modestly middle-class means.

Re: The X-Files has made me nostalgic for a time I never experienced

#208

Post by Izkata »

ethbr1 wrote: post #201
jghn wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The one thing about that era that has always seemed unique is that for people who lived it, a few years was a very big deal. Even now that I'm much older, talking to people in my age range it still blows my mind how different people's life experiences were just due to be 2-3 years different in age. Especially for anything tech oriented. Talk to people who were computer science majors in the 90s, you'll find that thei…

In retrospect, nobody remembers the exact date of an invention/product. In the moment, there's a sharp "time before it existed" and "time after it existed." I.e. late 2006, there was no mass market iPhone-like device; late 2007, there was

There were ones before that, my mom had one. Apple added polish and used a capacitive touchscreen instead of a resistive one, then amped up the hype in their commercials, so everyone forgot these existed.

Re: The X-Files has made me nostalgic for a time I never experienced

#209

Post by snozolli »

Izkata wrote: post #208
ethbr1 wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In retrospect, nobody remembers the exact date of an invention/product. In the moment, there's a sharp "time before it existed" and "time after it existed." I.e. late 2006, there was no mass market iPhone-like device; late 2007, there was

There were ones before that, my mom had one. Apple added polish and used a capacitive touchscreen instead of a resistive one, then amped up the hype in their commercials, so everyone forgot these existed.

Possibly a Palm Treo, introduced in 2002, or a Windows-based PocketPC, introduced in 2000.

I always felt that Apple basically reimplemented PalmOS with the benefit of ~10 years newer technology and a wildly efficient Chinese supply chain.

I definitely wouldn't say that these devices were mainstream. They were very much targeted toward business people and hardcore nerds. The iPhone definitely revolutionized the market, with its vastly more desirable aesthetic and approachable interface.

Re: The X-Files has made me nostalgic for a time I never experienced

#210

Post by snozolli »

snowwrestler wrote: post #122
jeffbee wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wrote an essay for a private journal last year about how the X-Files mainstreamed anti-scientific and anti-government conspiracy thinking and thereby led to the downfall of American democracy in the 21st century. It valorized the fringe, presaged "do your own research" and consistently told us that the skeptic is always wrong, the believer is always vindicated. It wasn't a bubble of the 90's, it was a prescient blu…

I've heard this idea before but I think it's primarily hindsight. At the time The X Files was on, there were even more popular shows about strong institutions, like Law & Order or The West Wing . So if popular TV was influential, why didn't society evolve toward those portrayals? I think we can look back today and say "that looked like this," but it doesn't mean that caused this. It took something far more powerful t…

It took the great flatness of the Internet. As Terry Pratchett predicted to Bill Gates back then.

Can you say more about this? All I'm finding are articles about PTerry predicting the rise of fake news:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/may/30/terry-pratchet...

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