Terma (The X-Files)
"Terma" | |
---|---|
Rob Bowman | |
Written by | Chris Carter Frank Spotnitz |
Production code | 4X10 |
Original air date | December 1, 1996 |
Running time | 44 minutes |
Guest appearances | |
| |
"Terma" is the ninth episode of the
FBI special agent Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) and assistant director Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) attend a United States Senate hearing, while Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) attempts to escape from a Russian gulag. "Terma" is the second part of a two-part episode, continuing the plot from the previous episode, "Tunguska".
Several scenes in "Terma" were inspired by the novels of
Plot
While imprisoned in a
Meanwhile, Vasily Peskow (Jan Rubeš), a former KGB agent, has come out of retirement and traveled to America where he assassinates Bonita Charne-Sayre, a doctor who is developing a black oil vaccine for the Syndicate. He then tracks down Charne-Sayre's test subjects and tests the Russian vaccine on them before killing them to cover his tracks.
Mulder is found by a group of Russian peasants (one of whom owns the truck that Mulder stole), who help him return to America, and rejoins his partner Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson). Scully and assistant director Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) had been detained by a United States Senate committee seeking to uncover Mulder's whereabouts when they cannot reveal his current location, but the committee was adjourned upon Mulder's arrival. The agents attempt to track down Peskow, following a trail of murders in Boca Raton, Florida, as well as locating a stolen truck. However, the assassin is able to outwit the agents, and destroys the last of the oil-containing rocks seen in the previous episode in an oil-well explosion after Mulder fails to remove the bomb. He returns to Russia, where it is revealed that he had been hired for this task by Krycek.[2]
Production
The episode's title refers to
Shots of the oil refinery seen in the episode were filmed at a thermal energy station situated in Port Moody, British Columbia.[4] The climactic oil-well explosion was achieved through physical effects, with crew member Dave Gauthier building a replica wellhead in a disused rock quarry, through which liquid was piped at pressures of 250 pounds per square inch (1,700,000 Pa)[4] to create a plume 300 feet (91 m) high.[3] This wellhead was rigged to spray oil-colored water for shots of the plume itself, which was switched with a remote control to a stream of kerosene and liquid propane for the shots involving the oil catching fire.[4]
Actor Nicholas Lea, who plays recurring character Alex Krycek, worked with a Russian-speaking vocal coach to ensure that his dialogue was delivered with the correct accent and stresses.[4] Malcolm Stewart, who portrayed NASA scientist Dr. Sacks in the episode, had previously appeared in several earlier episodes of the series, including "Pilot",[5] the second season episode "3",[6] and the third season's "Avatar".[7] Carter has called "Terma", along with its companion piece "Tunguska", "an action piece from beginning to end".[3]
Reception
"Terma" premiered on the
Writing for The A.V. Club, Zack Handlen rated the episode a B−, finding that it contained too much "vamping for time", without enough focus on any of the individual plot threads. Handlen felt that the plot thread based on the murder of the Well-Manicured Man's doctor friend should have been the episode's focus, and derided the "pomposity" of the dialogue elsewhere in the episode.[11] Based on an advance viewing of the episode's script, Entertainment Weekly rated "Terma" an A−, praising the "arms race" plotline.[12] Robert Shearman and Lars Pearson, in their book Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen, rated "Terma" one star out of five, comparing it unfavorably with the previous episode. Shearman and Pearson described the episode as "awful", noting that there "is virtually no structure to it at all". The episode's dialogue was described as being "dreadful, boring and facile", with its long, clumsy lines and "ever more complex and ever less interesting" speeches.[13]
Footnotes
- ^ Meisler, p. 104
- ^ Edwards, pp. 200–201
- ^ Fox.
- ^ a b c d e f Meisler, p. 102
- ^ Robert Mandel (director); Chris Carter (writer) (September 10, 1993). "Pilot". The X-Files. Season 1. Episode 1. Fox.
- James Wong & Chris Ruppenthal (writers) (November 4, 1994). "3". The X-Files. Season 2. Episode 7. Fox.
- ^ James Charleston (director); Howard Gordon & David Duchovny (writers) (April 26, 1996). "Avatar". The X-Files. Season 3. Episode 21. Fox.
- Fox.)
{{cite AV media notes}}
: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link - ^ Edwards, p. 201
- ^ Meisler, p. 298
- ^ Handlen, Zack (November 20, 2010). ""Terma"/"Wide Open" | The X-Files/Millennium | TV Club". The A.V. Club. Retrieved January 7, 2012.
- ^ "X Cyclopedia: The Ultimate Episode Guide, Season IV". Entertainment Weekly. November 29, 1996. Archived from the original on November 11, 2013. Retrieved January 7, 2012.
- ^ Shearman and Pearson, pp. 89–90
Bibliography
- Edwards, Ted (1996). X-Files Confidential. Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 0-316-21808-1.
- Meisler, Andy (1998). I Want to Believe: The Official Guide to the X-Files Volume 3. Harper Prism. ISBN 0-06-105386-4.
- Shearman, Robert; Pearson, Lars (2009). Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen. Mad Norwegian Press. ISBN 978-0-9759446-9-1.
External links
- "Terma" at IMDb