The New Frank Black Series

[ethsnafu]

Fourthhorseman has so eloquently written what I would have written, had I the ability, that there isn't really a need for this but....

What prompted me to write the above was not Millennium per se, nor an attempt to bring into question the validity, or potentiality, of a resurrection but the X-Files episode entitled 'Millennium', the series' swan song, the last word on the Frank Black story. What forced hand to keyboard was a visit from a friend who brought some X-Files DVDS to my house in homage to our days in the University Halls of Residence. The episode we watched was Millennium and it amazed me to see my friend sniggering with contempt at the Millennial apocalypse references, the very friend who had, in 199something, phoned me up after night of worrying herself sick over a Nostradamus Book: it had become very much a case of 'how terribly quaint, but stupid, we all were in those days', she doesn't actually talk like that but you get the jist.

I agree that Millennium does not need a Millennium and that the cornerstone of the show was, obviously, Frank Black but every character needs a universe to inhabit, a reality upon which the characters paint the story and Frank's reality was forged by many factors the impending Millennium being, admittedly, only one of them.

Chris Carter's sui generis ability is to take a tacit element of global paranoia, a current and relevant unspoken unease and dramatise it to such a degree that it creates an eerie nexus between the characters, the story and the man/woman/grey alien on the sofa. Millennium was pitched against a backdrop of burgeoning spirituality, age-of-Aquarius-consciousness, Biblical prophecy and a tangible, global unease precipitated by the upcoming Millennium. There were so many morphemes in the Millennium universe torn straight from the pages of the nineties newspaper that we acknowledged, without question, things like planetary alignments, Y2K bugs, Satanic Cults etc. What was part of the language of our society became part of language of the stories that society told.

As Chris Carter is a master storyteller it would be no impossible feat to reinvigorate the Millennium universe but it would, by nature of changes that have occurred both in reality and brought about by X-Files 7x05, have to be infused with a new impetus and reference points for it to be both valid, consistent and vibrant. The world of the nineties understood, without reticence, stories of failing technology, ancient evil, global catastrophes and a potentially immanent apocalypse as these concepts seeped into our consciousness from a multitude of sources. In the post Millennium world the emphasis is on a very real, tangible evil that has a name, a face, an overt agenda and possibly a web site. In these days of terrorism is it possible to engage our consciousness with yet more stories based on Revelation or Mark? Do these biblical prophecies have the same gravitas they did a few years ago when they seemed more immanent that at any memorable point in history. I live in a country where they are currently tearing the Crucifix from the walls of hospitals and removing the Bible from the wards, would Biblical prophecies engage us with the same fervor in a world where, by Government decree, these things are out of date?

My moot point was not that Millennium is beyond the necromantic abilities of Chris Carter simply that the story he told in X-Files 7x05 made its resurrection less likely. It was not my intention to define Millennium as having one all pervasive component, merely to note that what it had assimilated into its mythology may need evaluating if we were to 'open the books' again. Mind you, if he did I for one would crack open the 'barley wines' (noxious 'old lush' drink) and party like it was 1999.....

ethsnafu

[Guest DarkMatter]

Hi, may I venture forth a thought...? Perhaps the show could revolve around the fact that the calenders are wrong. Maybe the "true" millennium has yet to arrive. Think of the possibilities. Just a thought.

[Raven Wolf]

Hi, may I venture forth a thought...? Perhaps the show could revolve around the fact that the calenders are wrong. Maybe the "true" millennium has yet to arrive. Think of the possibilities. Just a thought.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Good thought! Also, it could continue with the message that we were left with at the end of the 3rd season, that the future is in our hands. In that way of looking at it, there is no set date. Sometimes, the unknown is even more frightening than knowing the world will end on a certain day.

[HighPlainsDrifter]

when i was going to college i remember reading in one of my textbooks how in the past in it would come close towards the end of each decade how people would think its the end of the world.......there would be alot of suicides

[4th Horseman]

Good thought!  Also, it could continue with the message that we were left with at the end of the 3rd season, that the future is in our hands.  In that way of looking at it, there is no set date.  Sometimes, the unknown is even more frightening than knowing the world will end on a certain day.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Good idea...in Gehenna, there is an exchange between Watts and Atkins during the translation of the letter the kid left behind disowning his mother...it goes as follows..

Peter: " `The end is coming. The numbers have been

miscalculated. 24 times 15 are 360, adjustable by... "

Mike: (finishes for Peter) "286.1."

[both Frank and Peter turn to look at Mike.]

Mike: "There is a deliberate error in the Great

Pyramid in Giza -- an architectural anomaly that

some prophets have cited as an error in our

calculation of the true calendar year. Some

believe it sets the date of the apocalypse in

1998."

So yes, it would be very possible to revolve around a disputed calendar..perhaps even 1998 could be shown to be wrong, perhaps the true MillenniuM is yet to come.....

good food for thought...

Till The Last Change....Be Done..

The Fourth Horseman..

[Raven Wolf]

Nice point, Horseman! And, there was also the whole May 5th thing. I think that was the 1998 reference. Now there's 2012....and so on and so forth. I think every generation somehow thinks that theirs is the chosen time. Ahhh...the audacity!

[The Old Man]

Hi, may I venture forth a thought...? Perhaps the show could revolve around the fact that the calenders are wrong. Maybe the "true" millennium has yet to arrive. Think of the possibilities. Just a thought.

Great idea! Welcome to TIWWA!

[ethsnafu]

Hi and a huge welcome also.....

"Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till all these things be accomplished. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. But of that day and hour knoweth no one, not even the angels of heaven, neither the Son, but the Father only."

Certain theologians are ardent campaigners against apocalyptic predictions, the above passage fermenting their argument that is is fruitless to speculate. "For ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh" doing the same. It would seem that Christ also shares their opinion of soothsayers. “So if anyone tells you, ‘There he is, out in the desert,’ do not go out; or ‘Here he is, in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it.”

Most of the hundreds of dates have already passed but a few still remain so it might be worth stocking up on tinned food.

2011-2018

Jack Van Impe's date for the rapture.

2012

Mayan and Aztec calendars predict the end of the age on December 21, 2012.

2060

Sir Isaac Newton, Britain's greatest scientist, spent 50 years and wrote 4,500 pages trying to predict when the end of the world was coming. The most definitive date he set for the apocalypse, which he scribbled on a scrap of paper, was 2060.

Days and dates aside, I guess there is still some years of mileage in Apocalyptic myths. Now where's the tin opener?

till then,

ethsnafu

[Walkabout]

In returning to the original theme of this thread... Does anyone believe Lance and Chris will team up and actually make another 'MillenniuM' series???????

[4th Horseman]

In returning to the original theme of this thread... Does anyone believe Lance and Chris will team up and actually make another 'MillenniuM' series???????  

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Walkabout....in answering your question, its unfortunately not that simple. One has to think that the possibility of a Carter/Henriksen reunion is solely based and driven by the almighty $$$. Remember, on Oct 25th, 1996, the Pilot opened to the highest ratings ever seen on Fox, a 21% share of all televisions in use on that particular night, a refulgent, razor-sharp simitar validating its timeliness, for there were several forces working in its favor.We were nearing the new millennium, and riding its coattails were expectations of monumental proportions, both realistic and fanatic, the x-files were still very popular, and Carter was riding a wave of recognition as one of the most brilliant and invocative directors in Hollywood. A great time was had by all.

Flash forward 8 years.....

Should the network execs confer that a renewing of the show, either in a series format or a full-length movie is a realization, take into consideration that for what ever reasons, the origional series, after the initial hype, saw a disturbing and steady decline in its viewershare, which of course meant that large numbers of people who had origionally vested an interest in the show, however token, were opting for other viewing pleasures?, settling for mindless and robotic programming, shows that did not have to make them THINK, something that they could set around on a Friday night and not have to consider what seemed to be at that time the inevitable.

MillenniuM's fate was sealed. 8 years later, we have now of course passed thur the hysteria that was the year 2000. (disputed as the actual millennia, see Gehenna or any of the other myriad of beliefs concering the new century). We survived the great planetary alignment of 5/5/2000 that was supposed to wreak devestation and destruction. My friends, what is left? A rehash of biblical prophecies? more Nostradameus? how long can those issues be bantered about until they are either ignored or brushed off as the rantings of a people gone completely insane.

All these rumors, conjectures of a remaking of the series, or of the production of a movie, are nothing more than whispers in the wind. No one has offered any concrete, substantial evidence, only innuendo, which only serves to fuel false expectations.

If this board is recognized, as we are told, by Carter, Henriksen, Redmond, and the like, then how about providing us some email addresses or internet links to Fox TV, their executives, etc. Signing the petition was a start, but without a constant reminder that there is still a large fan base that wants to bring the show back, our voices will continue to be ignored, soon to be nothing more than the dying rays of a once beautiful sunset..

Walkabout, to end this diatribe, sorry for going on for so long, right now, i dont think there is enough of a coordinated presence amongst MillenniuM fans, both amongst us here at TIWWA, and those who opt to remain annoymous.

I have even entertained the thought of making up my own petitions and going door to door around my neighborhood, inducing my neighbors to sign in support of bringing the series back...

Hopefully, someday, this glorious Phoenix shall rise again from its ashes, to sojurn that most hallowed ground, completing its journey in our hearts and minds...

until then my friends...

Till the Last Change...Be Done...

The Fourth Horseman..