I first realized this a day or two ago while watching a Season 3 episode of "The X-Files." The episode, "Nisei," dwells on the convoluted conspiracy narrative that forms the backbone of the entire series, and while it's a bit muddled at times it's a pretty good yarn. It involves the death of a bunch of Japanese scientists while conducting an alien autopsy, and the recovery of a mysterious briefcase, in which Special Agent Mulder finds a list of the MUFON members in Allentown, PA.
It's a long list. Lots of people in Allentown, according to "The X-Files," belong to MUFON. Lots and lots of people. Way more than the MUFON membership in the entire state of Wisconsin. What can this mean? Before I can fully understand, Special Agent Scully takes the list and decides to visit the home of a member whose name and address are circled on the list with red pen.
When she gets to the woman's house, Scully discovers that the MUFON member recognizes her. What's more, when the MUFON member quickly assembles the entire roster of Allentown MUFON members in her living room, they all recognize Scully!
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Sad ladies with alien implants... This is not the MUFON I know. |
Now, maybe this really happens in Pennsylvania, but here in the Wisconsin MUFON chapter we have so few members, and we're so distantly scattered around the state, that we pretty much never have meetings. Even if we did, we're not a bunch of sad-looking housewives with souvenir implants. We're just a handful of guys (and one woman, mostly retired) who investigate UFO sighting reports in our spare time, and to my knowledge none of us has ever been abducted or has ever left the planet.
One one level, none of this has any importance... On that level, I just think it's funny how the "X-Files" writers and producers re-imagine an organization of optimistic amateur UFO hunters as a massive, eastern Pennsylvania-based horde of traumatized and paranoid female alien abductees to fit the dramatic necessities of the storyline.
On another level, however, it makes me wonder if I am, in some small way, part of a conspiracy...
4 comments:
Don't complain Mark. It sounds like us Pennsylvanians have it much worse than you do. I also watched that episode recently. Isn't it always amazing that the alien body always seems to slip away from Mulder's grasp at the last minute.
Good thing the community doesn't rely on the entertainment industry to form its conclusions about UFOs, right? Right? Right?!
Well, these days, Pennsylvania MUFON does have a rep for outlandish statements (Malaysian aircraft abducted by aliens) and actions (David "chastity belt" Jacobs given a lifetime achievement award). They seem like a suitable object of ridicule today -- but I don't know how they were back then.
But why use the actual group name? Wouldn't that be actionable, considering the plotline? Or did MUFON receive a financial consideration for the use?
The episode was broadcast in 1995. A quick word search of the MUFON journal for that year finds no promotion or reference of the episode (not even a complaint in the letters).
My guess is that MUFON was just grateful for the attention...
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