Millennium Episode Review of Sense and Antisense by Erin (Raven Wolf)

Reviewed: Sense and Antisense

Contributor: Erin (Raven Wolf)

"Control of 3rd world populations designated secret national policy." National Security Memo 200 (1971)

"U.S. Military released from liability for experiments on unwilling and unknowing human subjects." U.S. vs Stanley, Supreme Court (1985)

The rhythm and tone of this episode is set very quickly by the beat of the music and the mysterious man ranting about trucks in the very first scene. Very quickly, I realized that this was not the Millennium I'd gotten used to in the first season, but it was nonetheless so engrossing that I was quickly swept away by it. In fact, this episode was as filled with paranoia as any X-Files ever was! Threaded through this web of government conspiracy paranoia and lingering, mystery-filled fear about what horrific disease had been unleashed on an unwitting public were Frank's incessant, mysterious phone calls. It seemed everything was geared to make Frank as unsettled and paranoid as possible. Though not a particularly Millenniumistic episode, "Sense & Antisense" appealed to the X-Files fan in me. It was riveting, as well as horrifying in the fact that it could be true. The government conspiracies, mysterious viruses, genetic experiments....All are elements of what made The X-Files great, and, though they seemed at first, to be a bit out of place in an episode of Millennium, it was quite exciting and thought-provoking to me all the same.

Deliciously, it ended with this final quote, to appeal to the impending sense of doom that Millennium is famous for.

"Human Genome Project accelerated for completion by the turn of the Millennium." U.S. Department of Energy (1990)