The X-Files (TV Series) Within (2000) User Reviews

Welcome to the X-Files, T-1000!

[Muldernscully · 8/10 · 30 July 2007]

Within brings with it the first major cast change for the X-Files, replacing David Duchovny with Robert Patrick(of Terminator 2 fame) in the lead male role. Robert Patrick plays Agent John Doggett, who has been assigned to find the missing Agent Mulder.

Within shows that the X-files can still be a great show, even without David Duchovny playing the iconic role of Fox Mulder. It's different not seeing Fox Mulder dominate the screen for the first time in seven seasons and takes some getting used to. But once you've adjusted and accepted his absence, you can see that the X-Files is still a top-notch television series.

The show starts off with a musical piece called "Scully's Theme" composed by Mark Snow. It's a beautiful score that recurs throughout the episode. It helps to emphasize the great loss that Scully now feels with Mulder missing.

The introduction to Agent Doggett is a classic. Chris Carter doesn't want the audience to immediately fall in love with his character. He's underhanded and sneaky as he "interviews" Scully while she waits to speak with Agent Doggett, not knowing she already is. When she discovers the ruse, she promptly throws water in his face to show her disgust with him. Welcome to the x-files, Doggett.

The scenes of Mulder being experimented upon by the aliens is visually shocking and quite gross. The show had always mentioned alien abductions and experimentations, but this is our first close-up look at what goes on in those ships.

Skinner solicits the help of the Lone Gunmen to help find Mulder. I believe this is the first time that anyone other than Mulder and Scully seeks their help. It's great to see Skinner's passion for finding Mulder. He has kept his emotions in check and walked the line for so long. But he finally shows signs of the strong bond that he has developed with Mulder. He's more than a superior now, he's a friend.

The episode ends with a great cliffhanger, leaving you guessing what the heck is going on with Mulder and what the purpose of his actions are. And so begins the search for Mulder and a new era for the X-Files.

You know him, brown hair, tall, works with you.

[Sanpaco13 · 8/10 · 28 July 2008]

Within takes on the task of launching a controversial season 8. A season that finds a considerable lack of Agent Mulder. Robert Patrick is brought in under much skepticism from Mulder fans as being a replacement in Agent Doggett. I thought that Robert Patrick took his role like a man. I enjoyed watching him become a part of the show and although I was among the skeptics in the beginning, I have grown to thoroughly enjoy his character. I thought also that this episode and its second part did a great job in making Doggett out to be a bad guy at first as well. He tricks Scully into thinking Mulder didn't trust her and manipulates her emotions in hopes of getting a better interrogation from her. She however does not give into this trick in the end and does what many of us fans wanted to do to Doggett in the beginning too. She throws a cup of water in his face. She yells at him and calls him names. By the end of the episode we are on Scully's side in full. The episode deals with an FBI manhunt for Agent Mulder which leads to the Arizona desert where boy mind reader Gibson Praise has been hiding. Skinner and Scully go there in hopes of finding the UFO on which Mulder has been abducted and Doggett and his team go there on a tip from the mysterious folder under the door trick. Throughout the episode as well we are led to question just where Mulder is actually. He is spotted at Scully's apartment and his security card was used at the FBI one night of the investigation. We also learn that Mulder was having his headstone prepared and that he was dying of some neurological disease. The Mulder that is running about however turns out not to be Mulder but none other than Alien Bounty Hunter disguised as Mulder. The episode ends on a cliffhanger literally. Alien Mulder grabbing Gibson in a standoff with Doggett. The episode is entertaining enough to validate watching the conclusion. 8 out of 10.

A very strong start to series 8.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 9/10 · 26 September 2022]

With Deputy Director Kersh now in charge, he appoints FBI Agent John Doggett to look for Agent Mulder, sceptical about Mulder's disappearance, both Scully and Skinner are unhappy with the state of things.

I didn't have huge hopes for series 8 based on what I've read and heard, but this first episode, I thought was great, I really did enjoy it. I loved the continuation of the story, and dare I say it, I didn't hate the way things were shaken up a little.

Fans will definitely recognise Doggett, Robert Patrick famously played T1000 in Terminator 2, as well as a tonne of other roles, great actor, I'm not saying Duchovny could ever be replaced, but he's a safe pair of hands.

Interesting to see that Scully has almost stepped into Mulder's shoes.

It was ways bold when a lead actor was taken out, one parallel I can think of, Blake's 7, Gareth Thomas was taken out, and the rest of the crew spent the next few years hunting for him, sounds similar to this scenario.

I loved the haunting music throughout, it stayed in my head all day, I had to download it.

No complaints from me here, 9/10.

Excellent Start for a non-expected 8th Season

[XweAponX · 10/10 · 21 February 2012]

This episode seamlessly blends, or starts the process of blending, the "traditional" X-Files with the new Story arc.

These two Eps, Within and Without, are the last ever "sighting" of the Alien Bounty Hunter (Brian Thompson). It occurs to me that this bounty hunter is different, it shows abilities that previous renditions did not have. It is also not very talkative. But then again how many of these guys are there, really? That's a question that gets answered in the second part.

And as a character played by Brian Thompson was the first guy killed by The Terminator - The X-Files marries into that franchise by hiring the Evil T-1000 (Robert Patrick) as Agent John Doggett.

And so, the New Deputy Director, our favorite Director Kirsch, makes the finding of Mulder a huge stir. This puts Doggett - An Agent with no ties to The X Files, and no interest in the things Skully and Mulder are interested in - On a very hot seat.

Kirsch makes it plain: Does not want to see words like "Aliens" or "Supernatural" on either Skinner's reports or Doggett's reports. Effectively tying Skinner's hands. But somebody is using Mulder's old FBI card to gain entry to the FBI offices and is stealing all the evidence, making it look like it was Mulder. Only Skinner and Skully know what this means- So they try to find Gibson Praise, as they have figured out, with Mulder's Abduction the Aliens are swallowing up whole every vestige of evidence they ever existed.

And only Gibson Praise has, and IS, this final piece of evidence.

Many so-called X-Files fans just stopped watching right here, but I thought it was an interesting way for Carter to introduce new characters with the possibility of, in the future, handing off the X Files from one team to another, with some intermingling in between.

This happens in Season 8, and is done very well. There are fewer "comedy" episodes, and the dark dismal X Files we loved, returns. If only the Fans could have returned as well.

This season finishes up the Mulder Abduction arc and starts the Super Soldier arc which involved Adam Baldwin (Animal Mother from Full Metal Jacket). It also introduces, later in the Season, Monica Reyes who will be Doggett's X-Files partner in Season 9.

This show could have gone on for another 7 years, had the Fans not been so stingy. Why Not, other shows - Like Law and Order, kept quality and changed main characters. But the so called X Files fans did not allow us to have that.

"I just came to feed the fish."

[classicsoncall · 8/10 · 14 August 2017]

I didn't think I was the only one. I stopped watching The X-Files when David Duchovny limited his participation in the series and then dropped out altogether. But now that I'm reviewing the episodes, it's time to get around to the couple of seasons I missed. This opener for Season Eight starts out promising enough, with Robert Patrick making the scene as Special Agent Doggett, not so much to replace Mulder as to lead the charge in finding him and bring him back into the FBI fold. Doggett doesn't waste any time ruffling the feathers of Scully and A.D. Skinner (Mitch Pileggi). His attempt at blowing smoke about Mulder's not trusting Scully earned him a harsh dose of reality, probably suggesting he should bring a daily change of clothes to work with him.

The story reintroduces Gibson Praise (Jeff Gulka), the young boy with the alien physiology that may hold the key to Mulder's disappearance, but the thing I couldn't understand was why he wound up at the Flemington School for the Deaf. He could hear and speak perfectly fine in his prior appearances, with the uncanny ability to read people's thoughts. Maybe it's answered in the second part of this story arc, as would be the closing scene in which Mulder appears to have run off with Gibson in tow. Sensing the psychology of the X-Files writers by now, I had an intuitive thought that the Mulder we see is perhaps the Alien Bounty Hunter, a question answered by a couple other reviewers here, who I can't fault for the spoiler because it's what I felt all along.

So the smoke and mirrors of The X-Files continues in the new season, which had become par for the course for the entire series. It will be interesting to see how Skinner and Scully proceed, knowing they have to walk a fine line having seen things they can't deny, but unable to get it on the record with their superiors. Least of which is Special Agent Doggett, now knowing where he stands with Mulder's associates and friends at the Bureau.