Jose Chung's From Outer Space
Encyclopedia
"Jose Chung's From Outer Space" is the 20th episode of the third season
The X-Files (season 3)
Season three of the television show The X-Files ran from 1995–1996.Chris Carter, the series creator, was still the lead writer - writing eight episodes - and the sole executive producer. Glen Morgan and James Wong continued their roles as co-executive producers, though they began to write...

 of the science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 television series The X-Files
The X-Files
The X-Files is an American science fiction television series and a part of The X-Files franchise, created by screenwriter Chris Carter. The program originally aired from to . The show was a hit for the Fox network, and its characters and slogans became popular culture touchstones in the 1990s...

. The episode first aired in the United States on April 12, 1996, on FOX
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...

. It was written by Darin Morgan
Darin Morgan
Darin Morgan is an American screenwriter best known for several offbeat, darkly humorous episodes of the television series The X-Files and Millennium. His teleplay for the X-Files episode "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose" won a 1996 Emmy for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Writing for a Drama...

 and directed by Rob Bowman. The episode is a stand alone episode, like most episodes of The X-Files, and follows the normal Monster-of-the-Week pattern of the show. However, more humor than is typical for the series is injected via manipulation of point of view, leading to multiple re-tellings of certain events
Rashomon effect
The Rashomon effect is the effect of the subjectivity of perception on recollection, by which observers of an event are able to produce substantially different but equally plausible accounts of it. A useful demonstration of this principle in scientific understanding can be found in an article by...

 with varying degrees of unreliable narrator
Unreliable narrator
An unreliable narrator is a narrator, whether in literature, film, or theatre, whose credibility has been seriously compromised. The term was coined in 1961 by Wayne C. Booth in The Rhetoric of Fiction. This narrative mode is one that can be developed by an author for a number of reasons, usually...

s. "Jose Chung's From Outer Space" earned a Nielsen household rating of 10.5, being watched by 16.08 million people in its initial broadcast.

"Jose Chung's From Outer Space" tells the story of FBI
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...

 special agents Fox Mulder
Fox Mulder
FBI Special Agent Fox William Mulder is a fictional character and protagonist in the American Fox television shows The X-Files and The Lone Gunmen, two science fiction shows about a government conspiracy to hide or deny the truth of Alien existence. Mulder's peers consider his theories on...

 (David Duchovny
David Duchovny
David William Duchovny is an American actor, writer and director. He has won Golden Globe awards for his work as FBI Special Agent Fox Mulder on The X-Files and as Hank Moody on Californication.-Early life:...

) and Dana Scully
Dana Scully
FBI Special Agent Dana Katherine Scully, M.D. is a fictional character and protagonist on the Fox television series The X-Files , played by Gillian Anderson. She also appeared in two theatrical films based on the series...

 (Gillian Anderson
Gillian Anderson
Gillian Leigh Anderson is an American actress.After beginning her career in theatre, Anderson achieved international recognition for her role as Special Agent Dana Scully on the American television series The X-Files. During the show's nine seasons, Anderson won Emmy, Golden Globe, and Screen...

) hearing about an alien abduction of two teenagers. Each witness provides a different version of the same facts. Within the episode, a thriller novelist, Jose Chung, writes a book about the incident.

Plot

A pair of teenagers in their car are captured by a pair of grey aliens who are soon confronted by a giant third alien from another race. Agent Dana Scully
Dana Scully
FBI Special Agent Dana Katherine Scully, M.D. is a fictional character and protagonist on the Fox television series The X-Files , played by Gillian Anderson. She also appeared in two theatrical films based on the series...

 (Gillian Anderson
Gillian Anderson
Gillian Leigh Anderson is an American actress.After beginning her career in theatre, Anderson achieved international recognition for her role as Special Agent Dana Scully on the American television series The X-Files. During the show's nine seasons, Anderson won Emmy, Golden Globe, and Screen...

) is interviewed concerning the case by author Jose Chung, who is seeking to write a book about alien abduction. Scully claims that the girl, Chrissy, was found with all her clothes inside out, appearing to be the victim of rape. Her date, Harold, is brought in by the police, claiming that they were abducted by aliens. The foul mouthed local detective, Manners, does not believe him, but agent Fox Mulder
Fox Mulder
FBI Special Agent Fox William Mulder is a fictional character and protagonist in the American Fox television shows The X-Files and The Lone Gunmen, two science fiction shows about a government conspiracy to hide or deny the truth of Alien existence. Mulder's peers consider his theories on...

 (David Duchovny
David Duchovny
David William Duchovny is an American actor, writer and director. He has won Golden Globe awards for his work as FBI Special Agent Fox Mulder on The X-Files and as Hank Moody on Californication.-Early life:...

) has Chrissy undergo hypnosis
Hypnosis
Hypnosis is "a trance state characterized by extreme suggestibility, relaxation and heightened imagination."It is a mental state or imaginative role-enactment . It is usually induced by a procedure known as a hypnotic induction, which is commonly composed of a long series of preliminary...

 in which she describes being on a spaceship surrounded by aliens. Harold claims to have encountered a cigarette-smoking alien on the ship who kept repeating, "This is not happening." Mulder is convinced that Chrissy and Harold were abducted by aliens, but Scully thinks it is more plausible that the two teenagers simply had sex and are struggling to deal with the emotional aftermath.

The agents then speak to a man named Roky Crikenson who claims he witnessed the abduction of Chrissy and Harold, having written his witness account as a screenplay entitled "The Truth About Aliens." He recounts a visit from a pair of men in black
Men in Black
Men in Black , in American popular culture and in UFO conspiracy theories, are men dressed in black suits who claim to be government agents who harass or threaten UFO witnesses to keep them quiet about what they have seen. It is sometimes implied that they may be aliens themselves...

 who told him what he thought he saw the night before was merely the planet Venus, and threatened to kill him if he told anyone otherwise. Roky's screenplay describes a giant third alien, calling himself Lord Kinbote who took him to the center of the Earth. In telling her version of events to Jose Chung, Scully explains that Roky suffers from a "fantasy-prone personality." Mulder, however, thinks that Roky's story contains some partial truths and decides to have Chrissy re-hypnotized. This time Chrissy claims that she was captured by the military, not aliens, and that they brainwashed her.

Chung speaks to a science fiction fanatic, Blaine, who found an alien body that was recovered by the agents and Detective Manners. Blaine claims that Mulder shrieked like a woman when he saw the alien and that Scully threatened him not to say anything. Blaine video tapes Scully performing an autopsy on the alien, which is quickly released as a video labeled "Dead Alien! Truth or Humbug?" that is narrated by the Stupendous Yappi (from "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose
Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose
"Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose" is the fourth episode of the third season of the science fiction television series The X-Files. The episode first aired in the United States on October 13, 1996, on FOX. It was written by Darin Morgan and directed by David Nutter...

"). The autopsy reveals that the alien is actually a dead Air Force pilot in an alien costume. His superiors arrive to claim the body, but find it missing. Mulder tricks the military officers into revealing the identity of another missing Air Force pilot, Lieutenant Jack Schafer.

As Mulder remembers it, he found Schafer walking naked down the highway. Mulder takes Schafer to a diner, where the pilot explains that he and his partner were piloting a military UFO while dressed as aliens. He thinks that he and his partner were abducted by real aliens, but given that he may not even exist himself, he cannot be sure. His superiors soon come to take him away. A diner cook, however, claims that Mulder was there by himself and asked him questions while ordering piece after piece of sweet potato pie.

Mulder, returning to the motel, finds the men in black (played by Jesse Ventura
Jesse Ventura
James George Janos , better known as Jesse Ventura, is an American politician, the 38th Governor of Minnesota from 1999 to 2003, Navy UDT veteran, former SEAL reservist, actor, and former radio and television talk show host...

 and Alex Trebek
Alex Trebek
George Alexander "Alex" Trebek is a Canadian American game show host who has been the host of the game show Jeopardy! since 1984, and prior to that, he hosted game shows such as Pitfall and High Rollers. He has appeared in numerous television series, usually as himself...

), in Scully's room. The agents later head to a site where the reported UFO crashed, where the bodies of the two Air Force pilots are recovered. Mulder visits with Chung, pleading with him not to publish the book since it will further discredit aliens and those who believe in them. Chung publishes the book, which Scully reads in her office. Mulder watches footage of Bigfoot
Bigfoot
Bigfoot, also known as sasquatch, is an ape-like cryptid that purportedly inhabits forests, mainly in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. Bigfoot is usually described as a large, hairy, bipedal humanoid...

. Harold professes his love to Chrissy, who rejects him in favor of her newfound commitment to philanthropy.

Production

Writer Darin Morgan
Darin Morgan
Darin Morgan is an American screenwriter best known for several offbeat, darkly humorous episodes of the television series The X-Files and Millennium. His teleplay for the X-Files episode "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose" won a 1996 Emmy for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Writing for a Drama...

 had pieces of the script for a long time, drawing inspiration from research he had done on hypnosis and a book on government coverups and UFOs that theorized that UFOs are a phenomenon that manipulate space and time, but aren't piloted by aliens. Morgan had the idea for the teaser in mind before becoming a staff member on the show. The narrative style was influenced by a casting session Morgan witnessed where an actor auditioning sounded like Truman Capote
Truman Capote
Truman Streckfus Persons , known as Truman Capote , was an American author, many of whose short stories, novels, plays, and nonfiction are recognized literary classics, including the novella Breakfast at Tiffany's and the true crime novel In Cold Blood , which he labeled a "nonfiction novel." At...

. From this he came up with the idea to have a writer covering the case. Capote died in 1984, and second choice Rip Taylor
Rip Taylor
Charles Elmer "Rip" Taylor, Jr. is an American actor and comedian.-Early life:Taylor was born in Washington, D.C., the son of Elizabeth, a waitress, and Charles Elmer Taylor, Sr., a musician. As a young man, Taylor served in the Korean War while in the U.S...

 was unavailable, so the role of Jose Chung ended up going to Charles Nelson Reilly
Charles Nelson Reilly
Charles Nelson Reilly was an American actor, comedian, director and drama teacher known for his comedic roles in theater, movies, children's television, animated cartoons, and as a panelist on the game show Match Game....

. Jesse Ventura was cast as one of the men in black, while the other, which Morgan had originally wanted Johnny Cash
Johnny Cash
John R. "Johnny" Cash was an American singer-songwriter, actor, and author, who has been called one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century...

 for, went to Jeopardy!
Jeopardy!
Griffin's first conception of the game used a board comprising ten categories with ten clues each, but after finding that this board could not be shown on camera easily, he reduced it to two rounds of thirty clues each, with five clues in each of six categories...

 host Alex Trebek
Alex Trebek
George Alexander "Alex" Trebek is a Canadian American game show host who has been the host of the game show Jeopardy! since 1984, and prior to that, he hosted game shows such as Pitfall and High Rollers. He has appeared in numerous television series, usually as himself...

. The role of Lord Kinbote went to stuntman Tony Morelli.

The episode contained a number of references and in-jokes. Klass County was named after UFO author Philip Klass
Philip J. Klass
Philip Julian Klass was an American journalist and UFO researcher, known for his skepticism regarding UFOs. In the ufological and skeptical communities, Klass tends to inspire strongly polarized appraisals. Klass has been called the "Sherlock Holmes of UFOlogy"...

, whose line about the planet Venus being mistaken for UFOs was used by one of the men in black in the episode. The pilots dressed up as aliens were named after UFO authors Robert Schaffer and Jacques Vallee. MP Hynek was named after UFO researcher J. Allen Hynek
J. Allen Hynek
Dr. Josef Allen Hynek was a United States astronomer, professor, and ufologist. He is perhaps best remembered for his UFO research. Hynek acted as scientific adviser to UFO studies undertaken by the U.S. Air Force under three consecutive names: Project Sign , Project Grudge , and Project Blue Book...

. The character of Roky Crikenson is named after musician Roky Erickson
Roky Erickson
Roky Erickson is an American singer, songwriter, harmonica player and guitarist from Texas. He was a founding member of the 13th Floor Elevators and a pioneer of the psychedelic rock genre.-Biography:...

, who claims to be an alien abductee. Chung gives Mulder the pseudonym Reynard, after the legendary fox. The alien autopsy video: "Dead Alien! Truth or Humbug?" referenced Morgan's first episode for the series, "Humbug
Humbug (The X-Files)
"Humbug" is the twentieth episode of the second season of American science fiction television series The X-Files. It was written by Darin Morgan and directed by Kim Manners. Morgan had previously appeared in a guest role as the Flukeman in an earlier episode of that season called "The Host"....

". The video was a parody of the real life Alien Autopsy video
Alien autopsy
An alien autopsy refers to a medical examination and dissection of the dead body of an extraterrestrial being. Such a procedure would more accurately be called an "alien necropsy", since an "autopsy" is, by definition, performed on a subject who is the same species as the examiner...

 aired by FOX. Detective Manners was named after director Kim Manners; the character's tendency to swear a lot was also influenced by his real life counterpart. Lt. Shaeffer molding his mashed potatoes into a mountain was influenced by the film Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Close Encounters of the Third Kind is a 1977 science fiction film written and directed by Steven Spielberg. The film stars Richard Dreyfuss, François Truffaut, Melinda Dillon, Teri Garr, Bob Balaban, and Cary Guffey...

. The cover to Jose Chung's book was a reference to the cover of the book Communion
Communion (book)
Communion: A True Story is a book by American ufologist and horror author Whitley Strieber that was first published in February 1987. The book is based on Strieber's alleged experiences with non-human, possibly extraterrestrial entities....

 by Whitley Strieber
Whitley Strieber
Louis Whitley Strieber is an American writer best known for his horror novels The Wolfen and The Hunger and for Communion, a non-fiction account of his perceived experiences with non-human entities. Strieber also co-authored The Coming Global Superstorm with Art Bell, which inspired the film about...

. Lord Kinbote was a homage to Ray Harryhausen
Ray Harryhausen
Ray Harryhausen is an American film producer and special effects creator...

, with the footage of the character shot at high speed then slowed down and edited in post production to create a stop-motion effect.

This episode would be the last that Darin Morgan wrote for the series. The writer claimed to be burned out and not cut out for the frantic pace of the show. Morgan would later write the similarly themed "Jose Chung's Doomsday Defense
Jose Chung's Doomsday Defense
"Jose Chung's Doomsday Defense" is the ninth episode of the second season of Fox's Millennium. Controversial writer Jose Chung comes to the aid of criminal profiler Frank Black and the Millennium Group when a bizarre religious group known as Selfosophy "Jose Chung's Doomsday Defense" is the ninth...

" for the TV series Millennium
Millennium (TV series)
Millennium is an American television series created by Chris Carter, creator of The X-Files. Millennium aired on the Fox Network from 1996 to 1999. The series was filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, though most episodes were ostensibly set in or around Seattle, Washington...

.

Reception

"Jose Chung's From Outer Space" premiered on the Fox network
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...

 on April 12, 1996. This episode earned a Nielsen rating of 10.5, with a 19 share, meaning that roughly 10.5 percent of all television-equipped households, and 19 percent of households watching television, were tuned in to the episode. It was viewed by 16.08 million households.

Gillian Anderson
Gillian Anderson
Gillian Leigh Anderson is an American actress.After beginning her career in theatre, Anderson achieved international recognition for her role as Special Agent Dana Scully on the American television series The X-Files. During the show's nine seasons, Anderson won Emmy, Golden Globe, and Screen...

 cited the episode as being among her highlights of the third season
The X-Files (season 3)
Season three of the television show The X-Files ran from 1995–1996.Chris Carter, the series creator, was still the lead writer - writing eight episodes - and the sole executive producer. Glen Morgan and James Wong continued their roles as co-executive producers, though they began to write...

. She said the episode was like dessert, adding "That's what kept it fun and that's what kept it worth doing all the time." Chris Carter
Chris Carter (screenwriter)
Christopher Carl Carter is an American screenwriter, film director and producer. He is the creator of The X-Files and Millennium.- Ten Thirteen Productions :...

 said of writer Darin Morgan
Darin Morgan
Darin Morgan is an American screenwriter best known for several offbeat, darkly humorous episodes of the television series The X-Files and Millennium. His teleplay for the X-Files episode "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose" won a 1996 Emmy for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Writing for a Drama...

, "It's been a wonderful coincidence of timing, talent, and the success of the show, allowing it to stretch in a direction it would never have been able to if it had been a less successful or if it had been a younger show. Darin is a truly original comic mind. I don't know anybody in the world working in film, and that's what we work in here even though it appears on television, who has the voice Darin has. He is one in many million." Co-Producer Paul Rabwin said of the episode "An instant classic. One of those seminal episodes. You know, when people talk about The Twilight Zone
The Twilight Zone
The Twilight Zone is an American television anthology series created by Rod Serling. Each episode is a mixture of self-contained drama, psychological thriller, fantasy, science fiction, suspense, or horror, often concluding with a macabre or unexpected twist...

, they say 'Remember "Eye of the Beholder
The Eye of the Beholder
"The Eye of the Beholder" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.-Synopsis:...

"?' Or "Trouble With Tribbles" on the original Star Trek
Star Trek: The Original Series
Star Trek is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry, produced by Desilu Productions . Star Trek was telecast on NBC from September 8, 1966, through June 3, 1969...

. 'Jose Chung' is going to be one of those episodes that is immediately revered." Assistant director
Assistant director
The role of an Assistant director include tracking daily progress against the filming production schedule, arranging logistics, preparing daily call sheets, checking cast and crew, maintaining order on the set. They also have to take care of health and safety of the crew...

 Tom Braidwood
Tom Braidwood
For the Scottish teacher, see Thomas Braidwood. For the Canadian judge, see Braidwood Inquiry.Tom Braidwood is a Canadian actor and director known for the role of Melvin Frohike, one of the conspiracy theorists known as the Lone Gunmen on the American television series The X-Files...

 appreciated Charles Nelson Reilly
Charles Nelson Reilly
Charles Nelson Reilly was an American actor, comedian, director and drama teacher known for his comedic roles in theater, movies, children's television, animated cartoons, and as a panelist on the game show Match Game....

's presence, saying that he captivated virtually everyone and gave everyone a lift, nicknaming everyone on the crew. Executive Producer Robert Goodwin said that the casting of Reilly was the most fun of the episode.

"Jose Chung's From Outer Space" received praise from critics as well. Author Phil Farrand rated the episode as his favorite episode of the first four seasons in his book 'The Nitpickers Guide to the X-Files.' Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...

 gave the episode an A, writing "A series so bleepin' ripe for parody brilliantly turns the tables on itself. Two (of many) guffaw-worthy moments: Mulder's squeal and the smoking alien." Reviewer Todd VanDerWerff of The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club is an entertainment newspaper and website published by The Onion. Its features include reviews of new films, music, television, books, games and DVDs, as well as interviews and other regular offerings examining both new and classic media and other elements of pop culture. Unlike its...

 gave the episode a rare A+ and wrote that the episode "is one of the very finest episodes of television I've ever seen, but I'm not sure it's a terrific episode of The X-Files. [...] If The X-Files were a Lord of the Rings-length novel, then "Jose Chung's" would be its first appendix, a source that is at once in love with the main text and critical of it, a place where real human concerns creep around the edges of the show's chilly implausibilities." Review website IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...

 named it the fourth best standalone X-Files episode of the entire series, writing, "it was "Jose Chung's From Outer Space" in Season 3 that showed that X-Files could create a true comedy masterpiece that almost completely broke away from the show's usual format and tone."

See also

  • Jose Chung's Doomsday Defense
    Jose Chung's Doomsday Defense
    "Jose Chung's Doomsday Defense" is the ninth episode of the second season of Fox's Millennium. Controversial writer Jose Chung comes to the aid of criminal profiler Frank Black and the Millennium Group when a bizarre religious group known as Selfosophy "Jose Chung's Doomsday Defense" is the ninth...

  • Richard Sharpe Shaver
    Richard Sharpe Shaver
    Richard Sharpe Shaver was an American writer and artist.He achieved notoriety in the years following World War II as the author of controversial stories which were printed in science fiction magazines , in which he claimed that he had personal experience of a sinister, ancient...


External links

  • Jose Chung's "From Outer Space" at TV.com
    TV.com
    TV.com is a website owned by CBS Interactive. The site covers television and focuses on English-language shows made or broadcast in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and Japan...

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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