The X Files: Ghost in the Machine (1993)

Date of Original Broadcast: 29 October 1993
Episode Running Times: 50 mins
Format: colour
Sound: stereo

CREDITS

PRODUCTION
Production Companies: Ten Thirteen Productions / Twentieth Century Fox Television
Executive Producer: Chris Carter
Co-Executive Producers: James Wong, Glen Morgan, R.W. Goodwin
Supervising Producers: Howard Gordon, Alex Gansa
Co-Producer: Paul Rabwin
Line Producer: Joseph Patrick Finn
Production Manager: J.P. Finn
Production Coordinator: Roberta Sheehy
Assistant Production Coordinator: Anita Truelove

SCRIPT
Script: Alex Gansa, Howard Gordon
Creator: Chris Carter

DIRECTION
Director: Jerrold Freedman
1st Assistant Director: Tom Braidwood
2nd Assistant Director: Collin Leadley

PHOTOGRAPHY
Director of Photography: John S. Bartley
Camera Operator: Rod Pridy
Focus Puller: Marty McInally
Chief Lighting Technician: David Tickell
Key Grip: Al Campbell
Processing: Gastown Labs

EDITING AND POST-PRODUCTION
Editor: James Coblentz
Assistant Editor: Jeff Cahn
Post Production Supervisor: G.R. Potter
Telecine: Gastown Post and Transfer
Electronic Assembly: Encore Video

MUSIC
Music: Mark Snow
Music Editor: Jeff Charbonneau

SOUND
Sound Mixer: Michael Williamson
Supervising Sound Editor: Thierry Couturier
Post-Production Sound: West Productions Inc

MAKE UP AND COSTUMES
Make Up: Fern Levin
Hair: Malcolm Marsden
Costume Designer: Larry Wells
Costume Supervisor: Jenni Gullett

SPECIAL EFFECTS
Special Effects: David Gauthier

VISUAL EFFECTS
Visual Effects Producer: Mat Beck
Main Title Sequence: Castle / Bryant / Johnsen

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Art Director: Graeme Murray
Assistant Art Director: Clyde Klotz
Set Decorator: Shirley Inget
Property Master: Ken Hawryliw
Construction Coordinator: Rob Maier

MISCELLANEOUS
Script Director: Wendy McLean
Transportation Coordinator: Bob Bowe

LOCATIONS
Locations: British Columbia, Canada
Location Manager: Louisa Gradnitzer

STUNTS
Stunt Coordinator: Ken Kirzinger

CASTING
Casting: Rick Millikan
Vancouver Casting: Lynne Carrow
Original casting: Randy Stone

CAST
David Duchovny (Fox Mulder)
Gillian Anderson (Dana Scully)
Jerry Hardin (Deep Throat)
Rob LaBelle (Brad Wilczek)
Wayne Duvall (Agent Jerry Lamana)
Blu Mankuma
Tom Butler (Drake)
Gillian Barber (Jane Spiller)
Marc Bauer (man in suit)
Bill Finck (sandwich man)
Theodore Thomas (Clyde)

SUMMARY

Mulder and Scully are called in by a former partner of Scully's to help investigate the death of a corporate CEO in his building's automated bathroom. Who - or what - was responsible? Was it the huge AI computer used to regulate the building's complex electronics - or something more supernatural?

CAPSULE REVIEW

It was inevitable that The X Files should seriously fumble the ball at some point, and the lacklustre Ghost in the Machine was to be that fateful moment. Leaning heavily on The Demon Seed (1977) Colossus - The Forbin Project (1970) and the little seen Australian thriller Crosstalk (1982), Ghost in the Machine is clumsily written and only adequately directed. It treads a well worn path but adds nothing of its own, failing to stamp it with the X Files brand of distinctiveness that were to make subsequent remakes and borrowings more palatable. The result is a bland 45 minutes, one of the least memorable of the first season outings.

AVAILABILITY

Germany
DVD Distributor: Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment

Japan
Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment (PCBP-00065)

UK
Television Distributors: BBC1; BBC2; Sky One
Video Distributor: Fox Home Video
Laserdisc Distributor: Encore
DVD Distributor: Fox Home Video

USA
Television Distributors: Fox
Video Distributor: Fox Home Video
Laserdisc Distributor: Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment

REFERENCES

OTHER SOURCES

screen
credits

KEYWORDS

artificial intelligences, computers, fbi, scientists

Last Updated: 15 October, 2008