Duane Barry
| "Duane Barry" | |
|---|---|
| Running time | 43 min. |
"Duane Barry" is the 5th episode of the second season, and 29th overall of the science fiction television series The X-Files. The episode first aired in the United States and Canada on October 14, 1994. "Duane Barry" subsequently aired in the United Kingdom, Ireland and was eventually released for broadcast to mainland Europe. The story was written and directed by executive producer Chris Carter. "Duane Barry" was a storyline milestone for the series. This episode marks the events which would lead up to Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) being alien abducted. Which would lead to her cancer in the fourth and fifth season, and her son, William Scully, Jr. in the ninth season.
The episode follows Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) when he becomes involved in a hostage situation with an escaped psychiatric patient who claims to be terrified of frequent alien abductions. The episode received a decent Nielsen household and syndication rating compared to other episodes of the season, it was generally positively received by fans and critics alike. Although the episodes earned decent Nielsen household and syndication ratings in the United States compared to previous episodes of the season, it was generally well-received by fans and critics alike.
The episode marked Chris Carter debut as a director. While never directing before, he would direct such episode as "The List" and "Improbable" later, and the second feature film, The X-Files: I Want to Believe. The story was inspired from a real-life event in which Carter read about in The New York Times.
Plot
In Pulaski, Virginia, in 1985, Duane Barry is abducted by aliens. Eight years later—the present day—Barry is in an institution. He steals a guard's gun, takes his doctor hostage, and escapes. Barry seeks to return to his original abduction site, but not knowing where it is, heads to a travel agency and takes the three employees there hostage as well.[1][2]
Fox Mulder is summoned to the hostage situation by the negotiation commander, Agent Lucy Kazdin. He contacts Dana Scully and asks her to look into Barry's history. Mulder calls Barry in order to earn his trust, and quickly learns that Barry is a former FBI agent himself, who left the bureau in 1982 and became institutionalized. When a power outage occurs, Barry believes the aliens are back and fires his gun, hitting one of the hostages. Mulder heads inside the travel agency along with a medic, and convinces Barry to let the injured hostage go. Barry agrees, but only if Mulder becomes a hostage himself. Mulder is instructed to get Barry near the door, so the snipers can fire on him.[1][2]
Scully arrives, and says that Barry is delusional due to being shot in the head in the line of duty back in 1982. She compares him to a case from the 1800s, Phineas Gage, where a man was harmed in a the same location in the brain and became a pathological liar. Mulder talks with Barry, who says the government is involved with the abductions and that he had implants put into his body to track him. Mulder convinces Barry to let the women go, and when he questions whether Barry is making anything up, Barry gets upset. Mulder tells him to go to the door, and he is promptly shot.[1][2]
Mulder visits Barry at the hospital the next day and Agent Kazdin reveals that metal implants were found within Barry and that tiny holes were drilled in his teeth, just like Barry told him. Mulder gives one of the implants to Scully, who has it reviewed by ballistics. Later Scully places it across a grocery store scanner causing the scanner to go off with garbled jargon, suggesting that the implants may be ID tags and/or contain encoded information on the individual. Barry awakens at the hospital and escapes after attacking the guard with a fire extinguisher. While Scully leaves a message on Mulder's phone, Barry breaks in and kidnaps her.[1][2]
Production
Conception
Originally planned to be a standalone mythology episode, but the news of Gillian Anderson's pregnancy led to the creation of a two-part episode, since the production crew knew they needed Anderson to disappear until she had given birth. The follow up episode was written Paul Brown, and was entitled "Ascension".[3]
Much of the inspiration Carter drew when writing the episode, came from a real-life incident which he read in a The New York Times article. The article contained information about a man named Phineas Gage, who injured himself in a railroad accident where a metal rot had pierced into his brain and removed the moral center of his brain. "So a very moral man became a very immoral man" because of an incident. Carter wanted to create a character "just like that", just with a different spin on things.[3]
The aliens seen at the start of the episode, were portrayed by children. Carter wrote specifically the part of Duane Barry with Steve Railsback in mind, saying "I've resisted casting the marquee names only because it takes you out of the show; makes the show less believable. But there are certain actors who just call out for the part.[4] Originally, Railsback character was named Duane Garry, but it was changed after learning that a person within the Federal Bureau of Investigation had the same name. So the name was eventually changed to Duane Barry, Carter has mentioned that he disliked the name at first, but got used to it over time.[3]
Filming
This episode marked Chris Carter's directing debut. Being the first he had ever directed, David Nutter from the directing staff helped, tipsed and showed him what to do. With Nutter's help, Carter learned how to block entire scenes. When commenting on his experience, Carter told that he sometimes followed Nutter's advice down to "the letter". When directing the episode, Carter wanted to create a different feel for the episode, by focusing more on the performances giving by the actors, than the mechanical set designs.[3]
During the filming of Duane Barry's (Steve Railsback) abduction, they had a "film run out" which according to Carter gave the scene a "very eerie effect".[3] Shooting that scene was a "real test" according to Carter.[5] Carter was pleased of the outcome, saying he was able to show viewers what he wanted out of The X-Files, which he felt he was "very successful" at.[6] The visual effect's crew had to hang a "giant light" over the house where Barry was being abducted. It took the course of 45 minutes to shoot the scene. According to Carter, much teamwork was required to film that particularly scene. As Carter puts it, he was actually forced to stay "behind the camera" to see the end results.[3]
Reception
"Duane Barry" earned a Nielsen rating of 8.9, with a 16 share, and was viewed by 8.5 million households.[7] Producer J.P. Finn praised the episode and Carter's directing, saying "We were all pretty nervous doing that one, because Chris Carter was a new director. It turned out that he directed very well. In fact, that's the episode that won the Golden Globe. It was a great script, a great cast, and he ended up directing a home run. One of the charming things about it was the end, where we had these alien heads placed on young children. It was so endearing to see them on the set between takes, playing with Chris and everyone".[8] Actor David Duchovny said of Carter's directing "Chris came in meticulously prepared, which is his nature. I think his first episode was great".[9]
Matt Roush from USA Today said Steve Railsback performance as Duane Barry, rivaled that of his portrayal of Charles Manson in the 1976 television series, Helter Skelter.[10] An unnamed reviewer from the Contra Costa Times called the episode "seminal".[11] San Jose Mercury News said Railsback gave what was to be the "ultimate X-Files performance" in 2002 after show had been cancelled.[12]
CCH Pounder and Chris Carter both earned Primetime Emmy nominations for "excellence in primetime television" for their work in this episode. Pounder was nominated in the category "Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series", while Carter was nominated in the category "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Writing for a Drama Series".[13] The episode was also nominated in the categories "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Sound Editing for a Series" and "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Editing for a Series - Single Camera Production".[14] Director of Photography John Barley also received a nomination for Outstanding Achievement Award for Episodic Television by the American Society of Cinematographers.[15]
Footnotes
- ^ a b c d Lowry,Brian (1995). The Truth is Out There: The Official Guide to the X-Files. Harper Prism. p. 171-172.
- ^ a b c d Lovece, Frank (1996). The X-Files Declassified. Citadel press. p. 117-119.
- ^ a b c d e f Carter, Chris. Audio Commentary for "Duane Barry" (DVD). 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.
{{cite AV media}}: Unknown parameter|year2=ignored (help) - ^ Hurwitz, Matt, Knowles, Chris (2008). The Complete X-Files. Insight Editions. p. 57.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Lovece, Frank (1996). The X-Files Declassified. Citadel press. p. 120.
- ^ Edwards, Ted (1996). X-Files Confidential. Little, Brown and Company. p. 100.
- ^ Lowry,Brian (1995). The Truth is Out There: The Official Guide to the X-Files. Harper Prism. p. 249.
- ^ Edwards, Ted (1996). X-Files Confidential. Little, Brown and Company. p. 100-101.
- ^ Hurwitz, Matt, Knowles, Chris (2008). The Complete X-Files. Insight Editions. p. 110.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Roush, Matt (October 14, 1994). "Fridays take dramatic turn // Fright, film noir and `Fences' fill the bill". USA Today.
{{cite news}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - ^ "Here's a Crash Course on X-Files". Contra Costa Times. June 12, 1998.
{{cite news}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - ^ "X-Files key players X-Files makes mark on TV Sci-Fi history Alien-spacey show re-establish genre during Skeptical Decade and Created Pop Catchphrases". San Jose Mercury News. May 19, 2002.
{{cite news}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - ^ Lowry,Brian (1995). The Truth is Out There: The Official Guide to the X-Files. Harper Prism. p. 172.
- ^ "Advanced Primetime Awards Search". Academy of Television Arts & Science. Retrieved November 7, 2009.
- ^ Lovece, Frank (1996). The X-Files Declassified. Citadel press. p. 120.
External links
