The Post-Modern Prometheus

The episode begins in the guise of a comic book. FBI special agent Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) receives a letter from Shaineh Berkowitz (Pattie Tierce), a single mother who claims to have been impregnated, while unconscious, by an unknown presence 18 years ago, resulting in the birth of her son, Izzy (Stewart Gale). Now, following a similarly unexplained attack, she is pregnant again. She has heard about Fox Mulder's expertise in the paranormal from The Jerry Springer Show, and wants him to investigate. Mulder and special agent Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) travel to rural Albion, Indiana, where they meet Shaineh and her son Izzy, and learn that the description of the creature that attacked her, with a lumpy head and two mouths, is very similar to a comic book character invented by Izzy. His monstrous creation, called The Great Mutato, is inspired by a mysterious creature that has been seen by many of the locals. Izzy and his friends accompany the agents to a wooded area, where they see Mutato (Chris Owens) from a distance. They meet an old man who angrily tells them that there are no monsters, and sends them to see his son, a geneticist named Francis Pollidori (John O'Hurley). Dr. Pollidori shows them his experiments studying the Hox gene, using the fruit fly Drosophila. This presentation includes images of a mutated fly whose legs are growing out of its mouth. He tells the agents that the same kind of experiment could, in theory, be performed on humans. Afterward, Mulder tells Scully that he believes that Dr. Pollidori, acting as a modern-day Victor Frankenstein, has created The Great Mutato. Later, Dr. Pollidori's wife Elizabeth (Miriam Smith) is knocked unconscious and attacked in the same manner as Shaineh. At the crime scene, Mulder and Scully find a chemical residue from an agricultural agent used to anesthetize animals, which leads them to suspect Dr. Pollidori's father, who is a farmer. Dr. Pollidori comes to his father's house, angrily confronts him, and murders him. Later, Mutato, who lives with Pollidori Sr., finds his dead body and tearfully buries it in a barn. Mulder and Scully go looking for Pollidori Sr. and find a shallow grave and photographs of the dead man with Mutato. Meanwhile, Dr. Pollidori leads an angry mob of townspeople to his father's house, demanding that Mulder and Scully turn the alleged murderer over to them. The agents find Mutato hiding in the basement as the crowd gathers upstairs. Someone accidentally sets the barn alight, and in the ensuing confusion, the mob realize that the agents are protecting the monster in the basement. Mutato speaks to the crowd and explains that he was created 25 years before, and that he is the result of a genetic experiment by Dr. Pollidori. Unbeknownst to his son, Pollidori Sr. rescued Mutato and cared for him, but was unable to provide a friend or a mate for the boy. The old man attempted to emulate his scientist son's experiments, and tried to create hybrids from his farm animals. Mutato asks Dr. Pollidori to create a female companion for him, but the scientist says that he cannot—that Mutato was a mistake. The townspeople realize that The Great Mutato is not a monster after all, and Dr. Pollidori is arrested for the murder of his father. Mulder feels that it is unjust for Mutato not to get a mate, and so he demands to see "the writer". In a fanciful, if not imagined, scene, Mulder and Scully take matters into their own hands and take Mutato, along with the townspeople, to a Cher concert. The episode ends with a shot of Mulder and Scully dancing, which slowly turns back into the comic book seen at the beginning of the episode. == Production ==

Conception 's novel Frankenstein.|alt=The title page for the original pressing of Frankenstein. Going into the fifth season of The X-Files, series creator Chris Carter noted, "we knew we were going to be hitting these very dramatic marks which were the mythology episodes, and we wanted to lighten, or leaven, the season with quirky episodes." Tabloid talk show host Jerry Springer appeared as himself. These casting choices went against a long-standing tradition on The X-Files of only casting actors who were not well-known. Filming shot the episode using a wide-angle lens.|alt=The image shows a cross-section of a wide-angle lens. The first five seasons of The X-Files, including "The Post-Modern Prometheus", were filmed in Vancouver. Music and cultural references The episode was scored by series composer Mark Snow, and was, according to him, his best episode score of the fifth season. He described the main theme as "a very dark, macabre, insidious sort of nasty waltz". Furthermore, the Frankenstein-like doctor shares the name—albeit with a slightly different spelling—of Shelley's contemporary, John William Polidori, who was present at the conception of her novel. Several lines in the episode come directly from James Whale's 1931 movie Frankenstein. == Themes ==

"The Post-Modern Prometheus" is the most obvious reference to Frankenstein made by the series, although traces of the story are seen elsewhere in the first season episode "Young at Heart" and the sixth season episode "The Beginning". In addition, the series' overarching mythology revolves around shadowy Syndicate leaders who salvage alien spacecraft for their own technological use and create human-alien hybrids. Emily VanDerWerff of The A.V. Club reasons that the ending was not the actual conclusion of the episode, but rather the fanciful and elaborate happy ending that was concocted by Izzy Berkowitz, the writer of the comic book, after talking to Mulder. In this manner, VanDerWerff notes, "the episode abandons logic and reality and, for lack of a better word, transcends." ==Reception==

was nominated for both Outstanding Writing and Outstanding Directing at the 50th Primetime Emmy Awards.|250px|thumb|right|alt=The picture shows several people sitting at a table. The one in the center has white hair and is looking up. Ratings "The Post-Modern Prometheus" was first broadcast in the United States on November 30, 1997, on the Fox network, and was first broadcast in the United Kingdom on March 29, 1998, on Sky One. The episode earned a Nielsen rating of 11.5, with a 16 share, meaning that roughly 11.5 percent of all television-equipped households and 16 percent of households watching television were tuned in. It was viewed by 18.68 million viewers. Reviews "The Post-Modern Prometheus" received generally positive reviews from critics. Mike Duffy, a Knight Ridder correspondent, wrote a largely positive article on the episode, noting that although the episode was special, this did not make it feel like a gimmick. He wrote, "when most shows blow promotional smoke about 'a very special episode,' it's best to check the Hollywood Hype-O-Meter for wretched, excessive buzzing [but] what sounds like a gimmick—'a very special black-and-white episode' loosely based on the horror movie classic Frankenstein actually turns out to be a ripping good ride on 'X-Files' creator Chris Carter's wigged-out storytelling train." A review from the Mobile Register wrote that "Like the very best X-Files episodes, this one combines a generous amount of humor with its horror." In a review of the entire fifth season, Michael Sauter of Entertainment Weekly said that "The Post-Modern Prometheus" was the "most striking" of the season's stand-alone episodes. and, despite noting the silliness of the story and the fact that most of the characters function as stereotypes, wrote that "'Prometheus' just works". Lionel Green of the Sand Mountain Reporter named the entry the greatest episode of the series and called the ending "one of the most uplifting finales in the series." Writing for the Daily News, Eric Mink gave the episode a rating of four stars and praised it as an outstanding episode in a weak early fifth season of the show. He said that the two leads acted flawlessly and that Chris Owens' performance as The Great Mutato was especially touching. He concluded that, "[w]ith Shelley's classic as inspiration, Carter and company have created a classic of their own." Matthew Gilbert of The Boston Globe called the episode "a memorable X-Files from start to finish", due in part to its "extraordinary visual flair" and "atmospheric black and white" footage. Margaret Lyons of New York called the entry "one of the great TV episodes of all time". Nick De Semlyen and James White of Empire named it the fifth "greatest" episode of the series and wrote that "[Chris Carter] plays with style and form, turning the entire episode into a loving homage to Universal monster movies in general and James Whale's 1931 Frankenstein in particular". In the 1999 FX Thanksgiving Marathon, containing fan-selected episodes, "The Post-Modern Prometheus" was presented as the "Best Stand-Alone Episode". Connie Ogle from The Miami Herald named The Great Mutato one of "the greatest monsters" that were featured on The X-Files. Robert Shearman, in his book Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen, rated the episode two stars out of five and criticized various elements of the episode's direction. The author wrote: "Chris Carter the writer has come up with something playful and light and charming. And Chris Carter the director has stamped all over it and made it so arch and obvious and dull that it kills it stone dead." She wrote that the episode "falls flatter than the chemical pancakes used to anesthetize the victims of this episode" due to its "collection of situations and observances that bear little relation to each other." Vitaris also criticized the scene wherein various characters are compared to animals, and commented, "the mean spiritedness of [the plot] is mind-boggling". Finally, she called the episode's conclusion a "false ending". Awards The episode was nominated for seven awards at the 1998 Emmys by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, including Outstanding Directing and Outstanding Writing for Chris Carter. Graeme Murray, Greg Loewen and Shirley Inget won the award for Outstanding Art Direction. Carter was also nominated for an award for Outstanding Directing by the Directors Guild of America. == Explanatory notes ==