Season 1 | Season 2 | Season 3
Season:
2
MLM Code:
#MLM-201
Production Code:
5C01
Original Airdate:
1997-09-19
Millennium Episode Trivia:
The second season premier brought with it an updated and altered variant of the show's opening credits sequence. Morgan and Wong changed the show's tagline from "wait, worry, who cares?" to "this is who we are, the time is near" and added a number of apocalyptic new images to the sequence. Millennium's opening titles would change with every new season.
The Polaroid Stalker notes that the scientific name of the Millennium Comet is P1997 Vansen-West, a designation taken directly from an episode of Morgan and Wong's Space: Above and Beyond. The comet was named for that show's protagonists, Lieutenant Nathan West and Captain Shane Vansen.
Credit: Brian Dixon, The Millennial Abyss
The 'print ad' for this episode states for the first time the name of days remaining, 832.
Season:
2
MLM Code:
#MLM-202
Production Code:
5C02
Original Airdate:
1997-09-26
Millennium Episode Trivia:
Sorry, there is no additonal Millennium Episode Trivia currently available for this episode.
Season:
2
MLM Code:
#MLM-203
Production Code:
5C03
Original Airdate:
1997-10-03
Millennium Episode Trivia:
Sorry, there is no additonal Millennium Episode Trivia currently available for this episode.
Season:
2
MLM Code:
#MLM-204
Production Code:
5C04
Original Airdate:
1997-10-17
Millennium Episode Trivia:
At the beginning, the scene outside the daycare center. Two rabbits in a cage have their names pinned to the cage: Bill and Hillory (sic). The Clintons? The episode took place in Probity, Arkansas.
Credit: The Fourth Horseman of TIWWA
First appearance of character Lara Means.
Season:
2
MLM Code:
#MLM-205
Production Code:
5C05
Original Airdate:
1997-10-24
Millennium Episode Trivia:
The dice bet that proves lucky for Frank Black - "eight, the hard way" - is a reference to Glen Morgan and James Wong's production company, Hard Eight Productions. The company's logo was a pair of red dice falling four and four on the green felt of a craps table.
Credit: Brian Dixon, The Millennial Abyss
Season:
2
MLM Code:
#MLM-207
Production Code:
5C07
Original Airdate:
1997-10-31
Millennium Episode Trivia:
When Frank Black is distracted by a big-screen projection television while trick-or-treating he gets a brief glimpse of the opening credits to Glen Morgan and James Wong's The Notorious 7, a television pilot that was rejected by the Fox network before the duo signed on to supervise Millennium.
This episode contains the most blatant of all of Glen Morgan and James Wong's trademark sight gags referencing their work on Space: Above and Beyond. The costumed man that Frank faces on the street is dressed as a Chig, the alien villains of the sci-fi drama series.
Credit: Brian Dixon, The Millennial Abyss
The film shown where the devil keeps laughing every time Frank's TV switches itself on is called The Mascot a.k.a Puppet Love, a.k.a The Devil's Ball made in 1934 by Ladislaw Starewicz.
For more information, see this
Millennium article :
Explaining the laughing devil - The Curse of Frank Black - Written by Graham P. Smith.
Credit: The Old Man of TIWWA
The Curse of Frank Black is said to have been influenced by the Japanese ghost move
Kwaidan.
Season:
2
MLM Code:
#MLM-206
Production Code:
5C06
Original Airdate:
1997-11-07
Millennium Episode Trivia:
Character: Jessica Cayce. Edgar Cayce: the well known seer, known otherwise as the famous "Sleeping Prophet", a modern day visionary. He was also credited with being a source of great and miraculous healing for untold numbers of people around the world.
Credit: The Fourth Horseman of TIWWA
From: https://www.crystalinks.com/edgar_cayce.html. He prophesized the Sphinx had been built in 10,500 BC and that survivors of Atlantis had concealed beneath it a "Hall of Records" containing all the wisdom of their lost civilization and the true history of the human race. Cayce prophesied that this Hall of Records would be rediscovered and opened between 1996 and 1998. He connected the opening to the second coming of Christ. The children were concealed below ground as was the "Hall of Records" and this episode aired in 1997.
Credit: Libby of TIWWA
Season:
2
MLM Code:
#MLM-208
Production Code:
5C08
Original Airdate:
1997-11-14
Millennium Episode Trivia:
Dr. John Schlossburg, the episode's German researcher, was named for Kevin John Schlossburg, one of the more prominent and active online fans of Glen Morgan and James Wong's sci-fi drama Space: Above and Beyond.
Credit: Brian Dixon, The Millennial Abyss
The FTP address that Watts gives to Roedecker is 204.48.18.31, which currently resolves to Pilot Network Services which has an address in Alameda, CA.
Credit: Libby of TIWWA
When Watts calls Roedecker back to see if he made any progress on determining Dr. Schlosshburg's password, Roedecker is asleep at this desk and wakes up. He answers the phone in a half-asleep voice, "Suicide Hotline..." Now this is funny in and of itself, but if you look closely at his face just after that, you can see a bit of drool at the side of his mouth! LOL! That just topped off the hilarity of the moment for me! And I think I just noticed it for the first time when I recently viewed the episode! Great stuff!
Credit: Scott Pugliese (TIWWA's Selfosophy Psycho)
Season:
2
MLM Code:
#MLM-209
Production Code:
5C09
Original Airdate:
1997-11-21
Millennium Episode Trivia:
In daring to spoof the infamously litigious Church of Scientology, Millennium drew considerable protest from those Hollywood insiders loyal to the religion. Word of the script spread and Darin Morgan's story immediately earned the ire of Scientologists. Executive Producers Glen Morgan and James Wong subsequently visited the Scientology Celebrity Center in Los Angeles and spent several hours discussing the script with church officials. One of the agreed upon changes was dubbing Darin Morgan's fictional religion Selfosophy rather than Selftology. Darin Morgan later noted how trying the experience was from a creative standpoint, commenting, "It seemed like a very simple freedom of speech issue. You take free speech for granted until certain people are threatening you, whether it be legally or otherwise, to shut up. And it isn't until that happens that you go, 'How much am I willing to stand up for this?'"
Credit: Brian Dixon, The Millennial Abyss
When Chung said that you can tell a lot about a person by the books they read, he picked up a paperback with the title "On the blood-dimmed tide" - a line from the Yeats' poem used in the pilot by the Frenchman.
Credit: The Fourth Horseman of TIWWA
In Chung's article for the porno magazine about Selfosophy, the first line of it reads: "Happy people are all the same, unhappy people are unhappy differently." This is lifted from the first line of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina: "All happy families resemble one another, but each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."
Credit: Fourth Horseman of TIWWA
The Nostradamus Nutball attacks his girlfriend at a screening of Orson Welles' film, The Third Man. Giebelhouse mentions "He escaped down a sewer shaft." In The Third Man, Welles' character, Harry Lime, escapes down a sewage shaft.
Credit: Fourth Horseman of TIWWA
Season:
2
MLM Code:
#MLM-211
Production Code:
5C11
Original Airdate:
1997-12-19
Millennium Episode Trivia:
Maher and Reindl's next episode, "Midnight of the Century," examined Frank's relationship with his emotionally withdrawn father (Darren McGavin). The two writers had drawn the assignment of scripting "a scary Christmas episode." They rented every scary Christmas movie they could find, like SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT. "We came up with the idea of doing `A Christmas Carol' with Frank," Reindl said. "The three ghosts would be serial killers of the past, present and future. We pitched our board, and after the first act, Glen said, `Did we talk about this at all?' And we said, `Well, not really, just generally.' He said, `Well, we have this scene in the Halloween episode.'" The scene Reindl and Maher had written was a flashback where a youthful Frank discovered his neighbor was a murderer. While not identical to the flashbacks in "The Curse of Frank Black," it was close enough that it was jettisoned. At that point, Morgan gave new instructions about the episode: while he didn't want a scene that close to "The Curse of Frank Black," he wanted the Christmas episode to be similar in that it would be a day in the life of Frank Black, rather than have Frank investigating a case. "It was Frank being guided along some kind of spiritual journey," said Maher. "Since it was a Christmas episode, we wanted to deal with Frank's family. It was a good opportunity to show some of his past with his father. Originally we had talked about Johnny Cash as Frank's dad, but then he got sick. And then of course we were very jazzed to get Darren McGavin. The Night Stalker as Frank's father! It was so perfect. We could not have asked for a better performance.
"We were thinking about Frank's visions, and we thought if one of his parents had visions, that would mean something, since his daughter Jordan has them," Maher added. "It's something that's passed from generation to generation. So we decided that his mother would have visions too, mainly because last year in `Sacrament,' the episode with Frank's brother, we got a very strong impression that Frank and his father weren't very close and that his father was very remote and very strict. We were wondering why that was. And Frank and his brother never talked about their mother. So we came up with the idea of Frank's mother dying when he was six years old, and he really didn't understand how deep his father's love was, so he blamed his father for letting her die alone. We also thought about the idea that Christmas is always supposed to be this perfect family holiday, but Frank's family has split up--he's without his wife and child. He really doesn't have a good relationship with his dad. It's sort of the Christmas that you end up with, rather than the Christmas that you really want." This time, Reindl noted, by reconciling with his father and enjoying with Catherine a Christmas pageant in which daughter Jordan appeared, Frank finally got the Christmas that he wanted.
Source: "TV's Best Kept Secret Improves In Its Sophomore Season" - Cinefantastique Magazine (1998).
Season:
2
MLM Code:
#MLM-210
Production Code:
5C10
Original Airdate:
1998-01-09
Millennium Episode Trivia:
Sorry, there is no additonal Millennium Episode Trivia currently available for this episode.
Season:
2
MLM Code:
#MLM-212
Production Code:
5C12
Original Airdate:
1998-01-23
Millennium Episode Trivia:
Chip Johannessen's script for this episode was inspired by the real life experiences of Chris McCandless. Like Alex Glaser, the disillusioned McCandless abandoned all of his worldly possessions and a promising academic future to take a new name and immerse himself in the Alaskan wilderness. McCandless' search for enlightenment was chronicled in the acclaimed Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer. Into The Wild, like this episode's story, is accompanied by journal entries written by the young man during his journey. Ultimately, mounting perils and misfortune caused McCandless to die of starvation on August 18, 1992.
Source: Brian Dixon, The Millennial Abyss
Into the Wild (the book and inspiration for
Luminary) was made into a feature film in 2007, directed by Sean Penn and starring actor Emile Hirsch as Christopher McCandless.
Season:
2
MLM Code:
#MLM-213
Production Code:
5C13
Original Airdate:
1998-02-06
Millennium Episode Trivia:
Michael R. Perry reveals the inspiration for this episode by explaining, "I got the idea for 'The Mikado' by hearing about Jennicam, the first girl to put herself on netcam 24/7 in the spring of '97. Now there are thousands." It is thanks to the writer's insistence, in fact, that the webcam transmissions seen throughout the episode are presented in a realistic manner rather than in realtime, a common inaccuracy in television representations.
Avatar, one of Millennium's most terrifying and memorable villains, is nearly identical in all respects to the Zodiac Killer, the infamous slayer who claimed responsibility for seventeen murders in San Francisco and northern California between 1966 and 1974. In the first draft of Michael R. Perry's script, in fact, Avatar was the real life Zodiac Killer. Like Avatar, the Zodiac Killer was never caught.
Clearly, since Frank Black is not stalking Zodiac in "The Mikado," Avatar underwent a number of name changes during the writing process. Network executives, despite Perry's wishes, insisted that the character could not be identified as a real world serial killer. Co-Executive Producer Ken Horton fought with the network in an effort to maintain the blurring between fiction and reality that Perry had intended but, ultimately, the network demands were met. Zodiac thus became Omega, adopting a new, fictional moniker. Lance Henriksen's endorsement agreement with the Omega watch corporation, however, made this name equally unsuitable for the production. Ultimately, the show's staff decided that the character would be known as Avatar.
Credit: Brian Dixon, The Millennial Abyss
During the scene where the small web camera falls off the top of the monitor and Frank leans down and picks it up, Roedecker can be seen playing with the Digipet or Cyberpet that Frank gave him for Christmas in Midnight of the Century.
Credit: Daniel Graham 26th July 2007
Season:
2
MLM Code:
#MLM-215
Production Code:
5C15
Original Airdate:
1998-02-27
Millennium Episode Trivia:
Sorry, there is no additonal Millennium Episode Trivia currently available for this episode.
Season:
2
MLM Code:
#MLM-214
Production Code:
5C14
Original Airdate:
1998-03-06
Millennium Episode Trivia:
Each of the episodes in this two-part story is named for one of the two opposing personality types associated with apocalyptic fears. The owl is often used as a symbol to represent those who do not believe in an impending apocalypse, the type of cautious or wary individual who fears the fervor and unrest potentially created by doomsayers. Within the Millennium Group, Owls are those who believe in a distant, secular end to the world rather than an impending religious Armageddon. As the Millennium Group Owl in this episode explains, "The owl knows it is still late at night, the foxes are about, the master sleeps. This is who we are."
The mysterious and sinister company that has employed Catherine Black in this episode, Aerotech, shares its name with a mysterious and sinister corporation from Glen Morgan and James Wong's science fiction drama series Space: Above and Beyond.
Clear Knight, the devious Aerotech executive who seems particularly preoccupied with the Black family, is portrayed by Kimberly Patton. Patton is just one of various pseudonyms utilized by actress Kim McKamy. The actress, under the pseudonym Ashlyn Gere, has had an illustrious career as an adult video star and was the winner of the adult film industry's FOXE 1991 Fan Favorite, 1992 Vixen of the Year, and 1993 Best Female Performer awards. In mainstream media, she has worked extensively with Morgan and Wong and appeared in nearly every one of their television and film productions.
Credit: Brian Dixon, The Millennial Abyss
Season:
2
MLM Code:
#MLM-216
Production Code:
5C16
Original Airdate:
1998-03-13
Millennium Episode Trivia:
Richard Wagner's "Prelude to Parsifal," the operatic piece that plays over multiple pivotal scenes throughout the episode, provides particularly appropriate accompaniment for the drama seen here. As the Old Man explains, Parsifal tells the story of a young man who quests for the Holy Grail. Wagner based the opera on Wolfram von Eschenbach's medieval epic Parzival, a 13th century epic poem that tells the story of the titular Arthurian knight and his quest for the Holy Grail.
Credit: Brian Dixon, The Millennial Abyss
Season:
2
MLM Code:
#MLM-217
Production Code:
5C17
Original Airdate:
1998-03-20
Millennium Episode Trivia:
In Greek mythology, a siren was any one of a group of sea nymphs who lured mariners to destruction on the rocks surrounding their island by their sweet singing. The voice of Tamara Lee, who was recovered from the ocean, has the same damning effect on those she speaks to throughout this episode.
Credit: Brian Dixon, The Millennial Abyss
Season:
2
MLM Code:
#MLM-218
Production Code:
5C18
Original Airdate:
1998-04-03
Millennium Episode Trivia:
"In Arcadia Ego" roughly translates to "I am in Arcadia." The phrase references Arcadia, a region of ancient Greece in the Peloponnesus famed for the idyllic, pastoral lifestyle enjoyed by its inhabitants. The episode shares its title with many famous works of art, most notably "Et In Arcadia Ego," a painting by French artist Nicolas Poussin that emphasizes the idea that worldly happiness and contentment are fleeting for mortals.
Credit: Brian Dixon, The Millennial Abyss
The address of house of the couple that Janette and Sonny try to contact is 1225 Magdalene Road. Possibly a reference to December 25th and Mary Magdalene.
Credit: The Fourth Horseman of TIWWA
Season:
2
MLM Code:
#MLM-219
Production Code:
5C19
Original Airdate:
1998-04-17
Millennium Episode Trivia:
In psychology terminology, anamnesis is the process of recalling to memory, of recollection, the ability to recall past occurrences. Catherine Black and Lara Means, as trained psychologists attempting to probe the memory of Clare McKenna, are no doubt familiar with the term.
Credit: Brian Dixon, The Millennial Abyss
Anamnesis is the only
Millennium episode in which Frank Black does not appear, as actor Lance Henriksen took a well deserved vacation in Hawaii.
Season:
2
MLM Code:
#MLM-220
Production Code:
5C20
Original Airdate:
1998-04-24
Millennium Episode Trivia:
This episode's title twists a familiar expression to accurately describe the prison cell that Lucy Butler confines Landon Bryce to. The play on words references the title of A Room with a View by E. M. Forster, another story that features a young protagonist struggling with questions of morality and societal expectations.
Credit: Brian Dixon, The Millennial Abyss
Warning - Potential Episode Spoiler!
Near the end of the episode, after it is clear that Lucy Butler has left the building, Frank Black examines an array of photos on the farmhouse wall. He notices the photos range from antique to modern and many have newspaper articles about missing children affixed to them (the same children in the photos). One photo in particular catches Frank's eye. It is a larger, framed photographic portrait of a young woman who bears a striking resemblance to Lucy Butler. Her hair is pinned back in an old-fashioned up-do. Frank turns the frame over and finds a yellowing newspaper article attached to the back. The photo in the frame is reproduced in the article, accompanied by the headline: "Local Girl Missing." The article reads: "Annie Martin, a senior at Winslow High School in Phoenix Arizona disappeared mysteriously on Friday afternoon after the meeting of the local sewing bee. Annie is a pretty young woman who is very popular among her school mates. She is described as a good student with average grades. Annie's disappearance has truly stunned our little community. If anyone has any information regarding ..." The camera pans up, we see the photo of Annie Martin again, the spitting image of Lucy Butler, and finally the date on the newspaper notice: "Monday, September 18th, 1911." This plot twist seems to suggest that almost 90 years earlier, Annie Martin, the girl in the photo, fell victim to Legion in the same fashion as the boys in the episode. Annie fit the victim profile: "an average student," "very popular among her school mates," etc.
It also seems to suggest that a) Legion assumed the appearance of Annie Martin when creating the Lucy Butler manifestation, or b) Annie Martin and Lucy Butler are the same person, perhaps the result of some infernal pact or possession.
Credit: 'they took it'
Season:
2
MLM Code:
#MLM-221
Production Code:
5C21
Original Airdate:
1998-05-01
Millennium Episode Trivia:
Many of the myriad jokes crammed into this episode were written as humorous jabs at the Fox network. The segment featuring Waylon Figgleif, a censor for the fictional Ant Network, was written by Darin Morgan based on his observations of the Millennium staff's regular confrontations with the Fox network's own Broadcast Standards and Practices division.
The dancing, computer-generated demon baby that Waylon Figgleif sees as a hallucination spoofs the dancing baby seen on Fox's Ally McBeal. The demon baby seen here was created by Scott Wheeler and the creative team at Area 51, the effects house responsible for all of Millennium's special effect needs.
Credit: Brian Dixon, The Millennial Abyss
Writer Darin Morgan makes fun of three Fox Television shows during this episode:
When Animals Attack, The X-Files and
Ally McBeal.
Season:
2
MLM Code:
#MLM-222
Production Code:
5C22
Original Airdate:
1998-05-08
Millennium Episode Trivia:
Morgan and Wong chose a genetically engineered variant of the Marbug virus as their apocalyptic initiator. Similar in its effects to Ebola virus, the Marbug virus existed as a part of the Russian bio-weapon arsenal, just as Peter Watts notes in the following episode. The Centers for Disease Control explain, "Marburg virus was first recognized in 1967, when outbreaks of hemorrhagic fever occurred simultaneously in laboratories in Marburg and Frankfurt, Germany and in Belgrade, Yugoslavia (now Serbia). A total of 37 people became ill; they included laboratory workers as well as several medical personnel and family members who had cared for them. The first people infected had been exposed to African green monkeys or their tissues. In Marburg, the monkeys had been imported for research and to prepare polio vaccine."
When discussing the corporate security group known as the Trust, Richard Gilbert drops the names of several agents involved in the organization. "The rest of us you know from the old Bureau days," Gilbert comments. "Duncan, Vitaris, Brian Dixon." Each of these names corresponds to a prominent fan active in following the television work of Glen Morgan and James Wong. Kate Duncan is a dedicated follower of Morgan and Wong's sci-fi drama Space: Above and Beyond. Paula Vitaris, a freelance writer for such magazines as Cinefantastique and Starlog, regularly penned magazine articles regarding Morgan and Wong's work in television.
Brian A. Dixon is the webmaster of the Millennial Abyss.
Credit: Brian Dixon, The Millennial Abyss
Season:
2
MLM Code:
#MLM-223
Production Code:
5C23
Original Airdate:
1998-05-15
Millennium Episode Trivia:
This episode's title presents a variation on one of Millennium's second season taglines, "The Time is Near." That phrase is taken from the opening chapter of the Book of Revelation, prophesizing the end of the world and final judgment.
Credit: Brian Dixon, The Millennial Abyss
