Saw Human Essence.

[Earthnut]

Yep! Well done!

So cool ! ! ! Thanks for the lesson.

Your eye has got to stop following me. Do you have any control over it?

[Guest quentin compson]

So, another Emma-centred episode.

I cannot help but think that the writers/producers rushed things a bit in their desire to get us to find Emma interesting and to like her. Probably that is why they throw another piece of a difficult family background at us in this episode - I'm sorry, maybe I'm heartless, but it didn't really work in my case. I still can't relate to Emma, and I still find her a rather uninteresting character.

Apart from that, "Human Essence" was alright, I guess. Maybe this "monster"-thing was a bit unnecessary as heroin is bad enough as it is, I guess, but the episode certainly wasn't as bad as I had expected after learning about its abysmally bad reputation.

[Guest WaveCrest]

I watched "Human Essence" on Thursday evening, in preparation for Friday's Skype group chat/discussion. It wasn't a classic by any means, but it wasn't as bad as it had been made out to be. It had some good moments.

I liked the use of locations. Especially in the scene about halfway through, with Frank, Emma and her sister at a park with a port in the background. It looked like that scene had been shot as the sun was setting for the day.

The explosions at the warehouse at the end of the episode looked genuine and not CGI'd. The body on the slab in the coroner's room looked fake and more like an alien out of The X Files.

What was fascinating was seeing how Frank looked and sounded in season three. Recently I started watching the second season of Millennium (watched "Beware of the Dog" earlier in the week), so it was a good jump forward to season three and "Human Essence".

[IHaveGoodInstincts]

After 10 years, I find that I watch some of the lesser liked Millennium and X-Files episodes after pretty much avoiding them for a number of years. I missed a bunch of X-Files Season 4 episodes, but that was also the last DVD set I had needed to complete my collection.

Human Essance would never make my top ten, but I liked it better than "Loin." I can't think of any other episodes that I dislike more than "Loin," but then again I have gone on record stating that I think Season 2 is Stinker-Free!

I mentioned this on another thread, but maybe if Chris Carter borrowed the Doctor's Vortex Manipulator, he could have used it (with some reworking, of course!) to make "Hell Money" a Millennium episode and Human Essence an X-Files Episode! I think the 2 episodes even shared 2 or 3 of the same actors!

[ethsnafu]

I don't know if "Hell Money" and "Human Essence" share a great many cast members but I do know that James Hong starred in both "Hell Money" and "Bardo Thodol" but then it isn't uncommon for actors to have made multiple appearances in XF and MM, sometimes on the same show.

My issue with "Human Essence" is that the central idea behind it is flawed. I could wax lyrical about what a mistake it was to put Hollis up-front-and-centre so soon after "Closure" but I've made that point a dozen times. My problem rests with the central idea behind the episode. Hormones are concealed within narcotic substances which result in animal transmutations in those who use them. Well the first question that begs to be answered is why? Simply that. Why? The script doesn't make much attempt to seek a motive for doing that.

My main problem, though, is with the idea that hormones are responsible for our physiology. A hormone is simply a chemical messenger that transmits information from one cell to another. It is no more responsible for our physical appearance then white blood cells or bile. You can load any substance you like with as many hormones as you like as this is not going to turn you into a snake and whilst all genre shows rely on a suspension of logic every now and again they should at least employ plausible faux-science to avoid invoking the 'what the hell' response.

Eth

[Earthnut]

quote]whilst all genre shows rely on a suspension of logic every now and again they should at least employ plausible faux-science to avoid invoking the 'what the hell' response.

Et

[IHaveGoodInstincts]

Yes, the plot could have had a second go-around for a more sensibility .

At a brief glance, I only saw one actor used twice. It was the guy shaking the hell money jar/one of the drug guys. I thought the big asian drug thug guy that Emma tried to beat up was in Hell Money, but I didn't see him.

However, They used the asian guy twice in season three: The guy who got stabbed by Mabius was also in the morgue when they found the body.

[Guest I Made This]

However, They used the asian guy twice in season three: The guy who got stabbed by Mabius was also in the morgue when they found the body.

You want to know something, it wasn't even his first appearance in Millennium. He also popped up in season one's 522666 not to mention numerous X Files episodes including Synchrony and Firewalker, each time dying horribly imaginative deaths.

[IHaveGoodInstincts]

He played a role in Caprica, another Vancouver show. He was also bad guy in the last few episodes of Andromeda. He did find his way into a number of my favorite 1013 episodes, which makes him cool in my book!

[Guest I Made This]

You might want to add Smallville to his list of credits as well. I think he played the Smallville High Principal in season one.