At the beginning of the cold war, the conspiracy began. It was a time different from our own, where bomb shelters were placed in every backyard and fear of communism gripped the world. Yet in a way that world was very much the same as our own. The paranoia now taking hold of our society as the millennium approaches could parallel that of the communist threat forty years ago. Perhaps the old conspiracies never truly died, they've just been given a new face with each new generation. It is an idea that should linger in the mind of every person and question their very belief systems...unfortunately, it did not.

As much as I love learning about the history of the X-Files, and Mulder's motivations to do the work he now does, I didn't care too much for this episode. That wasn't because it didn't have an interesting plot, or didn't pose provocative questions, but because it didn't seem like the show I had originally sat down to watch, which I believe was called "The X-Files." This episode seemed more like an old police drama, such as "Homicide" or "NYPD Blue", 1950s style. To me, it's just not an X-File without Mulder and Scully in it. And Mulder's brief ten minute cameo didn't cut it.

I realize other episodes have shown little or none of Mulder and Scully's presence and have still managed to be interesting, but unfortunately, "Travelers" failed even at that. It was nice to learn about the murky past of current episodes, and tie the mythology together, but "The X-Files" has already done this...with much better results. I enjoyed "Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man" because it starred someone we could relate to - Cancerman. "Unusual Suspects" accomplished the same with another major player in the series, The Lone Gunmen. "Travelers" had little of that, save for a few scenes with Mulder's father. Episodes that deal with characters we already know are better able to draw us into their plots. We want to know the motivations of the characters we see each week. What made Cancerman who he is today? How did the Lone Gunmen ever become so paranoid? These issues are interesting, touching, and integral in the series as a whole. "Travelers" wasn't. It was simply a monster of the week type episode set forty years ago with characters we know little or nothing about. I didn't see the connection...but then again, perhaps I'm not supposed to.

"Are you sure a man did this?"

Sadly yes, I am sure a man did this. A man by the name of John Shiban. Not to be too derogatory (I know I could never write an X- File!) but that was probably one a big reason behind its downfall. Anything with John Shiban under the credit of writer tends to be questionable. Of the several shows he's written by himself, the only one with any redeemable value in my books was "Elegy." I could feel the hand of Frank Spotnitz struggling to be seen throughout this episode in several lines and ideas, but the plot and basic storyline were Shiban's. And that couldn't be hidden by character development and excellent actors, as it was in "Elegy", for Mulder and Scully weren't in this episode, and the guest actors were less than spectacular. That was the other reason behind "Musings" and "Unusual Suspects" success - their writers! John Shiban hasn't come close to the work of Glen Morgan, James Wong, or Vince Gilligan.

Before I wrap up my criticisms, I have one more grievance. I have a feeling the fifth season has turned in the anti-Scully year. Not only did she nearly die from cancer, have her daughter ripped away from her, and be attacked by alien resistance fighters, she hasn't even appeared in two episodes in a row. I'm not sure why they chose to do that, but both "Travelers" and "Unusual Suspects", the rerun scheduled for next Sunday, are clearly devoid of all Scully...and a lot of Mulder for that matter! Maybe someone high up is a little miffed with his two uncooperative actors who don't want to stay in Vancouver... Hmmm... ;-)

Okay. I'll stop my complaining now. Surprisingly, there were some good parts to this episode. I've always been fascinated by history, and this episode handled that quite well. The reasoning behind the name "X-File" was intriguing, albeit slightly hokey. All the U's are taken up by other cases filed under U, so you can't put unsolved cases under U...so why not use the next letter, X, which for obvious reasons is usually quite empty. I wonder if J. Edgar Hoover had that in mind when he filed the first X-Files in 1947. It was also quite fascinating to see a glimpse of Mulder's father's past. Up to this point, we didn't know much about him, save that he worked for the State Department, was probably a part of the conspiracy, and didn't get along too well with his son. In "Travelers", we got to see who William Mulder, the man, was. He seemed like a pretty good guy, although, it did seem odd that such a young man would know so much about the conspiracy. I was still quite impressed with the way he handled himself, though, trying to do the right thing by letting Skur go, and at the same time helping Dales to solve his case. I can see where Mulder gets his morals from. One other little anachronism that made me smile was the sign in the Skur's bomb shelter - "What to do in the event of nuclear fallout. Plan ahead!" Times sure have changed.

The characters on "The X-Files" seem to have as much fun playing mind games with each other as the writers do with us. This episode was full of little in-jokes that made me either chuckle or stare at the television screen in incredulity. Mulder must have had an interesting life in his pre-Scully days. He smoked (a possible reference to his patronage?), had a cute little ruffled hair-do and big honking glasses, but most interestingly, wore a wedding ring. This was the instance that caused me to be so shocked. Did Mulder used to be married? Hmmm... Did David forget to take his ring off? Doubtful... Or were the writers just playing a little April Fool's Day joke on us? They obviously wanted us to see it, the way they so blatantly flaunted it in front of the screen, so I assume it was the latter explanation. :-P Other in-jokes could be seen during "Travelers" as well. There was quite a specific jab at all the tox screens Mulder and Scully have ordered over the course of the series. I loved it when Agent Dales asked when the tox screen performed on his partner would be ready, and the police agent informed him it would take six to eight weeks to get the results. Quite a difference from those overnight analysis Mulder is always pressuring Scully to get on her autopsies.

Although much of this episode was filmed indoors, I did manage to play 'spot the Vancouver landmarks' a bit during "Travelers". One specific location that caught my eye was Skur's old rickety house. It may just have been my imagination, but I could have sworn it was the same house Mulder was drawn to in "Demons." And Wisconsin is a far cry from Rhode Island...oops! It also seems that all those cigarettes Mulder used to smoke have finally caught up to him. Did he just forget all of this by the time "Paper Clip" rolled around five years later? It seems odd that if he already knew about this whole spider-thingie conspiracy and his father's involvement, he would be so shocked to learn that his father might have had a couple of extra-curricular duties in his job at the State Department. Of course, this *is* the same series that has been known to insist that a period from March, 1992 to March, 1998 only constitutes five years...

This episode had its values. Chris Carter finally got Darren McGavin (Agent Dales), the lead in the series that inspired him to create "The X-Files", to guest star. We learned a little bit about the conspiracy's, the X-File's, and Bill Mulder's past. We also got a valuable lesson about the horrors of the communist paranoia that took place in the United States during the 1950s. But we didn't get a good X-File. It seemed to me more a takeoff of Dark Skies, a show I swore never to watch for it was in itself a takeoff of "The X-Files." However, the reason this episode failed to thrill me had nothing to do with that. "The X-Files" simply isn't "The X-Files" without Mulder and Scully. Fans understand that, casual viewers understand that...I just hope the writers do as well.

"You're not supposed to understand. You're supposed to follow orders."