The Lone Gunmen

[Maxx Blackwell]

Hello everyone. I would like people's opinion on this concept.

In Millennium in the episode Lamentations we see Frank going up the stairs at FBI headquarters as Mulder and Scully come down the same stairs (although it wasn't David D and Gillian A). Frank also appears in the X-Files episode Millennium, thus sealing the notion that all three characters are in the same 1013 universe.

This assumes we ignore the appearance of Scully and Mulder in the Alien Autopsy scene in the second season episode "Somehow Satan Go Behind Me" and again on the TV heard through the door in (I think, Skull and Bones when Frank is walking in the hallway of Ed the writer's - chronicler? - apartment searching for the apartment where he saw someone looking through the blinds.)

Anyhow, the fact that the Lone Gunmen exist in the same 1013 universe as Fox and Scully and they live in the same universe as Frank Black, it would seem that there could be Millennium stories involving the Lone Gunmen.

Now, the Lone Gunmen have always played something of a comedic relief part in the X-Files while providing a serious function at the same time. I saw some episodes of The Lone Gunmen series, but rerettably not the whole series. Were there serious episodes that we'ren't so tongue in cheek or comedic?

The Lone Gunmen playing the same comedic role in Millennium I don't think would work, but given their links to conspiracy theories and all, it would seem plausible that they might know about the Millennium Group in some capacity. This being the case, do you think they could play a serious enough role in a Millennium story to not throw it off, but not loose the attributes or characteristics that make them who they are?

I look forward to your input on this.

Best wishes,

Maxx

[Guest ModernDayMoriarty]

I was never a fan of the Gunmen really. They were acceptable at first but their characters gained no progession or development. They remained comic relief from when they arrived until they died. There was quite a fascinating melancholy that seeped through in the latter stages of TXF however which does qualify them for inclusion into Millennium. In the episode 'Three of a Kind' for example, the start was excellent as Byers recounts a dream he has where America is truly a free world, manned by politicians who really care, only to have it all taken away and be left alone. This was picked up at the end of TXF when the Gunmen started to lose their chipper facade as you realise they have lost everything struggling to expose the government. They have been ridiculed, bankrupted and are eventually called upon to lay down their lives.

I would have liked more development on the individual Gunmen (they may have got this in their series but it looked so bad I never watched it), but yes they could exist in Millennium.

[Guest SouthernCelt]

Anyhow, the fact that the Lone Gunmen exist in the same 1013 universe as Fox and Scully and they live in the same universe as Frank Black, it would seem that there could be Millennium stories involving the Lone Gunmen....

...do you think they could play a serious enough role in a Millennium story to not throw it off, but not loose the attributes or characteristics that make them who they are?

I've never had an opportunity to watch all the LG eps on DVD. (Only got the first two or three eps on TV due to Fox channel changing to UPN.) I never got into LG as a standalone series and had the DVD set been anymore expensive, I'd never have bought it.

I think LG could complement the MM mythos in some ways much as they did for Mulder/Scully when they got to cyberspace info that was blocked to being readily accessible. They certainly would be suspicious of the Group, since they were basically underground conspiracy investigators who came closer than Mulder/Scully to "trusting no one," the golden rule of conspiracy investigation. Frank might be able to use their computer skills and natural distrust of shadow organizations to verify or refute some of his suspicions about Group involvement in certain events. I don't think Frank would be very tolerant of some of the wise-cracking though; you'll notice he tended to ignore Roedecker's comments most of the time.

[Guest A Stranger]

I think Morgan and Wong already tried to incorporate what the LGM were to MLM in Brian Roedecker. He could have easliy been the fourth Gunman. And I never felt too strongly about him either way.

As for the LGM in general, I liked them in TXF for the most part but their death was a joke as was that last year of the show. The LGM series was not executed very well. The addition of the Jimmy and female vixen character were horrible. They were boring. It was like they made the hot chick to sell the show to sci-fi nerds. The show had it's moments but did very little for their characters. I like the idea of the idea of the Gunman as true patriots, it just wasn't that great.

[The Old Man]

I totally agree you on this. They were boring and such obvious stereotypes it put me off the series. I liked the Gunmen in the X-Files episodes and it would have been nice to see some stories involving them on Millennium or perhaps better in the Lone Gunemen series, perhaps investigating Group members.