1×07 – SPACE
by foxestacado
Recap by funkymunky
I was a little late to the recapping party and most of the good episodes were taken, so I volunteered to summarize what is generally believed to be one of the more boring episodes of The X-Files. I do it all for you, kids.
“Space” opens with footage from a 1977 news report from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. We see a female reporter dressed in a truly fugly blouse that is adorned with a large bow around the collar. Ah, the ‘70s. Although the outfits in these early ‘90s X-Files episode were pretty horrible as well, as we all know. Plaid shirts and puffy flower-print dresses galore. We won’t get into that here. There’s not enough time. The reporter explains that the NASA team is celebrating some really cool close-up pictures of Mars from the Viking Orbiter. The images reveal large amounts of water trapped beneath the planet’s polar ice caps, which could have-you guessed it- sustained life. Another image shows a formation that looks like a seriously Botoxed human face. Cut to the reporter interviewing the Project Director, Lieutenant Colonel Marcus Aurelius (really) Belt, who denies any alien involvement in The Face’s formation. He explains that it’s the result of light and shadows and solar winds that cross the surface of Mars at 300 miles per hour.
The camera pans out from a grainy black-and-white image of The Face, as Belt drops his keys on the table in his apartment. He lies back in bed, the windows wide open and the curtains blowing in the wind. Silly Col. Belt. Don’t you know that bad people and/or things can come in through open windows and kill you? Oh well. It’s your funeral. Literally. I’ll get to that later. We see a flash of white light as Belt flashes back to a spacewalk he did. He shouts that there is something out there, and that it’s coming at him. Another flash of light, and he opens his eyes. He stares up at the ceiling, which starts to swirl into The Face. Scary violin music plays and it starts screeching and flies towards him. Belt has a look of sheer terror in his eyes. You know, I was nine years old when this episode first aired, and am really glad my TV interests at the time were confined to Tiny Toons and Full House. This would have scared the crap out of me. Though it’s a wonder Uncle Jesse’s mullet didn’t do the same.
Credits.
Shuttle Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida. Present Day. Good ol’ stock footage of a shuttle launch. The fictional NASA gang is gearing up for liftoff. The scene moves to Mission Control in Houston. A young woman is sitting at her station, with Belt standing behind her. The countdown begins, but liftoff is aborted with 3 seconds left.
Washington D.C., two weeks later. Our heroes are sitting on the steps of someplace or other, waiting for somebody. Scully’s hair is looking fabulously bad, and Mulder’s is all wavy and full and odd-looking. Mulder tells Scully that he got a note from someone from wanting to meet with someone from the FBI. A woman sporting some cheap-looking earrings approaches them and introduces herself as Michelle Generoo. When I heard that name, I couldn’t help thinking of a species of penguin known as the gentoo. I love penguins. And I loved them before this whole craze, so you can’t accuse me of jumping on the penguin bandwagon. Anyway, Michelle is the space shuttle program’s Mission Control Communications Commander. Somebody really likes alliteration. Michelle explains that there may be a saboteur inside NASA. The launch from two weeks earlier was scrubbed because an “auxiliary power unit valve malfunctioned.” Had it not been stopped, the shuttle could have exploded right there on the ground. Michelle opens her briefcase and shows Mulder and Scully something that was sent to her in the mail-an X-ray of an APU valve that shows deep scoring marks. These marks could have caused the malfunction, and it appears that tampering had occurred. But according to Michelle, nobody could have caused that type of damage without being detected. So how did it happen? Michelle says that she came to see Mulder and Scully because they specialize in unexplained phenomena. OMG. This chick is perfect for Mulder! Except for the fact that her fiancé is the shuttle commander. There goes that idea. Oh, wait. Maybe not. NASA love triangle! With a crazy murderous diaper-wearing astronaut!
Houston Space Center, the next day. Mulder and Scully are being driven around in one of those golf cart thingies, discussing possible reasons why somebody would want to sabotage the shuttle. Wow, Scully’s hair looks especially bad in this scene. It’s not like she’s in a convertible with the wind blowing through her hair, she’s in a golf cart! Mulder makes some good arguments but I can’t stop focusing on Scully’s hair. I didn’t notice this until like my third rewatch, but I swear they drive by a guy with a mullet. Awesome. They pass by a digital clock on the wall that says that 10 hours and 45 minutes remain until launch. At first I didn’t realize this was a countdown clock, and when they got to Belt’s office a few minutes later and the clock read 10:39, I was all, “Oooh…the ghost is messing with the clocks.” Then I figured it out. Duh.
They are led down a hallway, and Scully’s hair seems to have calmed down a bit. Mulder sees a photo from the Gemini VIII mission. He gives Scully a brief history of the mission, and mentions that Col. Belt nearly died on it. The look on Scully’s face says “geek!” Apparently she never wanted to be an astronaut when she was a kid. I did. Then I saw Apollo 13. They go into Belt’s office and introduce themselves, and Mulder turns into a total fangirl. It’s adorable, but I also want to smack him and tell him to stop embarrassing himself. Scully takes out the X-ray of the APU valve, and asks Belt if he has any reason to suspect sabotage. He says no, and is offended that Scully would even make such accusations about the program. Scully asks if he would consider postponing the launch until an investigation is conducted, but he won’t hear of it. Mulder asks if he and Scully can watch the launch from Mission Control, and continues gushing. As they leave the office, Scully quips, “Didn’t you want to get his autograph?” Heehee.
Downstairs, they show the APU valve X-ray to a scientist who claims that a material analysis was never ordered. Doing so would delay the mission for months and incur a huge cost. As they walk upstairs, Scully asks Mulder if he thinks Col. Belt was lying. Mulder doesn’t want to believe that his hero would endanger the astronauts’ lives, and hopes that the X-ray is a fake.
They look down onto Mission Control, where everyone is prepping for the launch that is 90 seconds away. Technobabble. Stock footage. The shuttle launches, and everyone breaks out into applause. Michelle and Mulder (who looks positively giddy) give each other the thumbs up, and Scully rolls her eyes. Oh Scully, won’t you let the boy have his fun?
Mulder and Scully walk through a hallway in their hotel later on, ready for an evening of platonic chit-chat and nothing more. Mulder says that he fulfilled one of his childhood fantasies, and Scully fires back with “It ranks right up there with getting a pony and learning to braid my own hair.” Funny, but again, let the boy have his fun. Michelle runs after them, shouting “Mulder, wait!” You know missy, Scully’s right there. Pretending she doesn’t exist won’t make her go away. She tells them there was a problem with the shuttle and they need to get back to Houston.
They follow her in their car down a dark, rain-slicked road. Mulder says that there’s a press blackout in effect, and that the media probably doesn’t know about the problems. They follow Michelle as she makes a turn. Suddenly, a blurry face comes flying towards her from outside the windshield, and she crashes her car. Mulder pulls over and manages to help get Michelle out from the overturned car, and she says that something came at her in the fog. Scully asks if it was an animal. “No. It had a face. It was… it was grotesque.” Uh-oh. Mulder helps her to their car they continue on their merry way.
At Mission Control, the orbiter is communicating with Houston. Michelle walks in and asks what’s happening, and a man who we’ll call Scientist Guy explains that they’re having problems with something or other that I won’t bother to transcribe here. He looks up at Michelle, whose forehead is covered in blood, and asks what happened. She says she was in an accident. This whole time, I feel the need to take a damp washcloth and hold it on her forehead. That’s a nasty gash. Here comes the exposition fairy. Mulder goes over to Scully and explains to her (and the audience) that the manoeuvring system has malfunctioned, and the shuttle can’t rotate away from the sun in order to make sure the orbiter stays cool. The back-up systems have failed, and they can’t do anything from the ground. Scientist Guy says that “it’s like somebody’s interfering with the telemetry.” Ooooh…I wonder who that could be? Michelle says that if somebody is screwing with the systems, they’d be in the data banks. So they rush up there.
Mulder walks in with his weapon drawn. I tried thinking of a way to phrase that so it can’t be interpreted as dirty, but it’s impossible. Or maybe I’m just 12. Anyway, he’s followed by Michelle, then Scully. When Mulder’s back is turned, someone (or something) runs past. The power goes out, but back-up generators kick in a few seconds later. Mulder gives his federal agent spiel, and a man in a lab coat comes out from his hiding place in a corner. He kinda looks like a younger, paler, geekier version of Governor Bill Richardson. Michelle checks his clearance. Bill explains that a sensor went off because of a telemetry malfunction. Mulder gets all drill-sergeanty and orders a lockdown of the facility, saying that nobody gets in or out unless they have proper clearance. Wow. Bossy Mulder is kinda hot.
Back downstairs in Mission Control, Belt asks about the attitude of the orbiter. I’ve never heard the word “attitude” used like that. I think he means “orientation.” You learn something new everyday. Scientist Guy says that it’s got its belly towards the sun, and that the flash evaporator is working but that it’s not enough to keep it cool. Cabin temperature is climbing to 116F. Ouch.
Michelle runs back in, telling Belt that someone or something is jamming their transmissions and that the shuttle isn’t responding to override commands. Belt orders them to cut off telemetry, i.e. cut off contact between Mission Control and the shuttle. Michelle says that they may not be able to re-establish contact. But Belt doesn’t care. He just wants to make sure they can regain control of the shuttle. But he also seems more concerned with making sure the payload gets delivered than with the safety of the men on board (yes, they’re all men). So Michelle reluctantly informs the astronauts that they’re going to temporarily cut off ground control, which Exposition Mulder explains to Scully. Michelle’s last words before contact is stopped: “David…you take care.” I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that David is the fiancé.
At the 45 second mark, Michelle says that if the astronauts were able to accomplish anything, they would have done it by now. They prepare to re-establish communication. Mulder bites his lip, anxiously awaiting any sign from the shuttle. The video signal has failed, and only static appears on the screen. Michelle calls the shuttle twice, and after what are probably the longest three seconds of her life, they respond. The rocket scientists start applauding, as they are wont to do Chez NASA. Aww, even Scully looks happy that they’re not, you know, dead. She glances over at Mulder, who’s smiling. Belt tells the astronauts to get some rest.
In the washroom, Belt is washing his face. He looks up slowly (and rather creepily, I might add) and stares into the mirror. What’s he looking at? Does he have a zit or something? Because The Face sure isn’t there. I don’t know. Moving on.
Belt is now standing in front of a room full of reporters, ready to give a statement. Michelle, Mulder, and Scully are in the back. Scully asks how Belt knew what he did was going to work. Michelle says that he didn’t, and that the astronauts could have died up there. Scully asks why he would have taken that risk, and Michelle tells her that bringing the astronauts back without delivering the payload would have resulted in millions of wasted dollars and a perfect reason for Congress to shut down NASA. As opposed to, say, a bunch of dead astronauts who would have inspired Congress to write a blank check for the program. The camera pans to Belt, who is explaining to the reporters what the crew has been up to. “After a beautiful night launch, the shuttle orbiter has performed magnificently.” Mulder’s eyes open wide, like a pair of saucers. Flying saucers. Michelle rolls her eyes, like she’s not the least bit surprised. “So much for your boyhood hero,” Scully tells Mulder. He looks so dejected.
Mulder chases Belt down the hallway, and before he even asks, Belt knows his question. He starts off with a gushy speech about how astronauts risk their lives for the goodness of mankind, and Mulder agrees. He laments how back in the day, astronauts were front page heroes, but now “they bury you in the back of the paper.” Well of course they do. We all know that (1993) people are much more interested in the tale of a 17-year-old popping a cap in her boyfriend’s wife’s head. Without the media circus surrounding that incident, we would never have the masterpiece that is “Beyond Control: The Amy Fisher Story.” I defy you to argue with that, Col. Belt. Where were we? Oh yeah. Why he lied. He says that you only make the front page today if you screw up. Mulder asks him again if he thinks someone is sabotaging the shuttle. He says to Mulder as he’s walking away: “My answer to you sir, will be to bring those men safely to earth.” The hell? That doesn’t even make sense. What kind of an answer is that? Then again, this is The X-Files, and a simple “yes” or “no” wouldn’t suffice. Belt walks away, leaving Mulder looking like a sad little kid who has just found out that his favourite baseball player is using steroids. Or that his favourite football player is murdering dogs. Or that his fav- you know what, I’ll just stop there. This could go on forever.
Belt walks back into his apartment, opens his freezer, takes out a bottle, and takes a swig. He walks over to the Window of Doom and gazes out for a second before climbing into bed. And the flashbacks begin again. We see him out in space, the Earth behind him, claiming that there’s something out there. We leave the flashback and see Belt’s face twisting into The Face again. It looks pretty painful. A misty greenish ghost comes out of his body, and he reaches for it as it floats away towards the window. The camera pans around, and the ghost seems to have disappeared. But it reappears, and this time it’s white. It disappears into the night sky.
Shot of the shuttle passing over Canada. Ooh, I wonder if they can see my house from up there. Probably not. One of the astronauts reports hearing a weird noise, like something bumping against the ship. I guess we know where our ghost friend disappeared to. Some Lab Coat Guy runs upstairs to the data banks where Mulder is biting either his nails or sunflower seeds. He informs Michelle that there is an oxygen leak on board. Great.
Back in Mission Control, Scientist Guy says that there’s an oxygen leak in the main tank. One of the other dudes says that an astronomer in Winnipeg spotter a gaseous cloud trailing behind the shuttle. Exposition Mulder explains to Scully that this is the oxygen leaking out. Apparently the same thing happened to Col. Belt on one of his missions. Michelle asks where Belt is, and Scientist Guy says he doesn’t know. He was supposed to come in 90 minutes earlier for payload deployment. Meanwhile, the astronauts are asking how much oxygen they have left. She orders Scientist Guy to prepare a worst-case scenario. He says they have 30 minutes of backup oxygen.
Mulder and Scully go off in search of Col. Belt, because Michelle isn’t sure how bad the leak is. Scully says, “It’s an oxygen leak. Even I can figure out what happens when you run out of oxygen.” Well, yeah, Scully. I should hope so. You’re a DOCTOR. Or “medical doctor,” as she likes to say. Because when most people hear “doctor,” they immediately think Ph. D. in East Asian Studies. Mulder explains that Col. Belt will know better than anyone what to do since he’s been in that situation before. They arrive at his apartment but there’s no answer at the door. Scully says she’s going to go get security, when Belt opens the door, flushed and out of breath. When Mulder asks if he’s alright, he tells them that he was feeling well. Mulder informs him that he’s needed at Mission Control.
Back at Mission Control. We hear over the speakers or whatever that the shuttle is ready for re-entry. Belt puts on a headset and asks about condensation on the cabin. They say that the windows are getting steamed up. Ooh, sounds like somebody joined the 200 mile-high club. (I had to Google the altitude of a shuttle orbit). Actually, Michelle notes that it’s a sign of carbon dioxide build-up. Belt tells them to put on their spacesuits, depressurize the cabin, and vent the carbon dioxide. And then deliver their payload. Michelle looks shocked. “Those are men up there,” she says to him. Belt snaps at her, telling her she’s out of line, don’t tell me how to do my job, blah blah blah indignantcakes. He tells her that if her personal life is clouding her judgement and she can’t function, she should let other people handle the situation. So she puts down her headset and walks away.
Michelle runs down a hallway, crying like a 14-year-old girl. I have to say something here. I understand she’s upset about her fiancé and all, but come on. Stay there and do your job. What’s done is done, and your running away isn’t going to change anything. Prove Belt wrong. Show him that you can handle what’s thrown at you. You’re acting like such a stereotypical fragile girl who’s in luuurve .
Mulder and Scully run after her. “They’re going to die!” she cries, saying that he put the payload ahead of their lives. Scully agrees with her, believing that Congress will kill the space program if the payload isn’t delivered. Mulder responds, “And you think killing those astronauts won’t have the same effect?” Exactly, Mulder. Scully believes that Belt knows something, and that he’s known all along. Michelle wants the shuttle pulled out of orbit. Mulder defends Belt to Michelle, and keeps touching her while doing this. Stop, dude. She’ll get the wrong idea. Mulder doesn’t believe Belt wants the astronauts dead. “How can you be sure that what he’s doing isn’t going to save their lives?” he asks.
Mulder goes to Bill Richardson and asks him to pull up documents, diagrams, schematics, or anything that would show that Belt knew about the sabotage. Scully and Mulder are sitting on a carpeted floor, flipping through and endless amount of black binders. How would they even know what they’re looking for? Mulder opens a binder with a preliminary report about the Challenger disaster.
Up in space, the shuttle delivers its payload. It’s a big cylindrical thing that goes spinning away. And the earth looks really pretty below. Belt tells them to do something or other to prepare for re-entry, when one of the astronauts says that there’s someone outside the ship. It’s our misty white ghost friend from before. Obviously. Belt’s face starts scrunching up and sweating, and he shouts “No! No! No!”
Back wherever Mulder and Scully are, Scully says she found a copy of the same diagram that Michelle had received. It was ordered by Belt. Therefore, Scully concludes, he knew about the damaged APU valve. Mulder shows her an X-ray of the O-ring that was responsible for the Challenger explosion, ordered one week before the accident. So he may have known about that as well. Mulder says that something weird is going on. Duh. Michelle rushes in and informs them that Belt has collapsed. Mulder kinda but not really helps Scully up off the floor, putting his hand on her back. He does that a lot, with the hand on the back. It’s cute. It’s subtle but it says so much. Sorry. My inner shipper is leaking out again.
They enter Belt’s office, where he’s supposed to be. But he’s not there. Then they hear a whimpering. Scrawled on his desk with a Sharpie are the words “Help me.” Belt is curled up underneath, shaking, sweating, and twitching. Mulder says to call a doctor. But Mulder, there’s a doctor right there! A medical doctor! Dr. Scully says that he’s having a seizure. Belt cries, “It hurts! It’s tearing me apart!” The medics arrive and carry him towards the stretcher. Michelle says that she’s bringing the shuttle down. Belt screams, “No!!! It’s out there!!!” The actor playing him, by the way, is doing a fabulous job here. He seems really crazy and possessed and stuff. Scully wants him to be injected with Diazepam, but Mulder holds her off, convinced that he’s trying to tell them something. Mulder gets him to calm down by holding up his index finger and telling him to focus his breathing and pain on it. “Now you’re focused,” he says. Wow. I’m impressed. I woulda stuck the guy with a needle of the anti-crazy juice. Anyway, Belt informs them that the shuttle won’t survive re-entry because the silicone tiles on the fuselage are destroyed. Cue bad memories of Columbia from a few years ago. Mulder asks how they were damaged, and Belt says he was responsible. He says he didn’t sabotage the shuttle, but that he couldn’t stop them either. Wait a minute, “them”? There’s more than one? Damn. Meanwhile, his pulse is climbing to a dangerously high level. He says, “It came to me…it lives in me!” Flashback to Belt on his spacewalk. Except this time we actually see the ghost floating towards him. Back to present-day Belt, and his face is morphing into The Face. Everyone sees it, and Michelle says that it’s the same face she saw before she crashed. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve thought, while watching old episodes, “If only they had cell phone cameras!” Belt loses consciousness and the medics have to shock him. Scientist Guy comes in and informs them that the astronauts have run out of oxygen. They have exactly 30 minutes left in the emergency supply. The medics manage to revive Belt.
Down in Mission Control, Michelle orders the astronauts to begin deceleration.
As Belt is being wheeled away, Mulder says to him that the shuttle won’t survive re-entry. He asks if anything can be done. Belt tells him to change the re-entry trajectory to 35 degrees. Dude, why didn’t you say that before? And if the tiles are damaged, would changing the angle really make a difference? Whatever. Mulder and Scully rush to tell Michelle to adjust the trajectory. There are only 30 seconds left, and Michelle says she can’t do it because they’d have to change the landing site, inform them beforehand, etc. But Mulder says it’s their only chance. So within the span of about 15 seconds, they check the weather in Albuquerque, confirm that landing there is okay, and tell the astronauts. Except we don’t know if the astronauts received the information before the communication blackout. Well, we do, but let’s pretend we haven’t seen this one before. Michelle tries to reach them but doesn’t get a response. That’s because there’s a blackout in effect. Really, she should know that. Other Scientist Guy says Hawaii has picked up the shuttle on radar. But that doesn’t mean they made it. Albuquerque doesn’t have radar confirmation. Michelle repeats, “O.T.C., this is Houston. Come in, O.T.C.” Nothing. Then we hear it: “Houston, this is O.T.C. You know a good place to eat in Albuquerque?” You astronauts with the jokes. Scully laughs, the scientists applaud, and Mulder and Michelle do something that’s not quite an embrace but more than a hug. They put their arms around each other and spin around. Whatever one of those things is called. And you know Scully is thinking, “Step off, biyotch,” even though it’s several more years before they do or don’t do what they may or may not have done. For the record, it makes me cringe when Mulder gets all touchy-feely-gropey with women who aren’t Scully. Even though I may have previously stated that Mulder and Michelle are perfect for each other, that doesn’t make it right.
Stock footage of a shuttle landing.
Michelle is giving a statement on TV about the shuttle landing, saying the shuttle returned to Earth “without incident.” Belt is watching this on TV from his hospital bed when The Face returns. Dammit, you can’t even leave the guy alone in the hospital? He starts pulling out all the tubes that are hooked up to him and appears to be trying to shake off the ghost. “No more!” he cries, before throwing himself out the window and on to the street below. Shots from the perspective of Belt falling are interchanged with shots from his spacewalk. Poor bastard.
At work the next day, Mulder is reading a newspaper article about Belt’s death. Scully walks in and puts on her concerned face. Her hair looks better today. Mulder says that something must have possessed him while he was out in space. But Scully says it was severe dementia, according to the doctors who examined him. Mulder thinks Belt was trying to warn Michelle by sending her the X-ray, “as if his own instinctual impulse was to save those men.” Scully: “While simultaneously trying to kill them?” Scully says an investigation is underway, and that foul play has not been ruled out. The scene ends with Mulder saying that Belt gave his life as an astronaut, something he was prepared to do.
Belt’s burial, with full (I think) military honours. Mulder and Scully are there, which seems strange to me because it’s not like they were close or anything. It’s a pretty small crowd to begin with. Can you just walk into these things? Whatever. The episode’s almost over. Five jets fly overhead in tribute. The camera zooms in on the flag on his casket. The end. Finally.
Recap by Funkymunky