Tunguska (The X-Files)
Encyclopedia
"Tunguska" is a 1996 episode of The X-Files
television series
. It was the eighth episode broadcast in the show's fourth season. "Tunguska" was the first of a two part episode featuring the return of Alex Krycek and the agents coming into possession of a Martian rock containing alien life. Mulder travels to Russia with Krycek to find out more about the rock, where he is imprisoned in a Russian slave labor camp.
to Dana Scully
as she is brought before a Senate
select committee
to be questioned about the whereabouts of her partner, Fox Mulder
. Scully refuses to answer the committee's questions and attempts to read a statement denouncing the conspiracy within the government
. Senator Sorenson, the committee's adversarial chairman, threatens to hold Scully in contempt of Congress
.
Ten days earlier, at Honolulu Airport, a courier returning from the Republic of Georgia is subjected to a search by customs officers. One of the officers removes a glass canister from the courier's briefcase and accidentally shatters it, exposing both men to the black oil
. Meanwhile, in New York City
, Mulder and Scully take part in an FBI raid against a domestic terrorist group. Mulder's tipster within the group is revealed to be Alex Krycek
, who had been released from the missile silo
while the terrorists were conducting a salvage hunt. Krycek has now turned against the Smoking Man, and tells the distrustful agents that he can help expose his activities.
Krycek leads the agents to Dulles International Airport, where they try to apprehend a second courier carrying a diplomatic pouch from Russia
. The courier leads the agents on a pursuit through the airport, but drops the pouch before escaping. The pouch is revealed to carry a seemingly unremarkable rock. Mulder has Krycek confined at the high rise apartment of Assistant Director Skinner
before having the rock analyzed at NASA
's Goddard Space Flight Center
. Dr. Sacks, a NASA scientist, tells Mulder and Scully that the rock is a prehistoric meteorite
fragment which might contain fossilized alien bacteria.
Skinner is approached by the Smoking Man, who demands that the pouch be returned. The courier breaks into Skinner's apartment and searches for the pouch, only to be killed by Krycek. Meanwhile, Dr. Sacks cuts into the fragment, but inadvertently releases the black oil inside; the organism penetrates the scientist's hazmat suit
and puts him in a coma
-like state. Mulder travels to New York to visit Marita Covarrubias, who reveals that the fragment originated from the Russian province of Krasnoyarsk
and provides the documents needed to travel there. Mulder reluctantly brings along Krycek, who is fluent in Russian
.
In Charlottesville, Virginia
, the Smoking Man is admonished by the Well-Manicured Man when the latter learns about Mulder's travels. Skinner and the agents are subpoenaed
to appear before Senator Sorenson's panel over the missing pouch; when Skinner questions Scully about Mulder's whereabouts, she is not forthcoming. Meanwhile, as Mulder and Krycek hike through the forests of Krasnoyarsk, the former theorizes that the fragment may be tied to Tunguska event
, a mysterious cosmic impact which occurred in the area in 1908. The two men come across a slave labor camp, but are captured by the taskmasters and thrown into a gulag
.
Skinner and Scully meet with Senator Sorenson who questions them on the death of the courier and the location of Agent Mulder. Mulder talks with a fellow prisoner who tells him that innocent people have been captured and brought here to be subjected to experiments. Immediately afterwards guards burst into the room and inject Mulder with a syringe. When Mulder awakens he is in a large room bound with chicken wire along with many other prisoners. Black material is dumped onto his face, infecting him with the oily black worms.
in August, 1996. The writers combined this concept with two other previously discussed storyline ideas, the return of Alex Krycek
and a look at the Russian counterpart to The X-Files
. The writers of the show desired to expand the mythology globally, a concept that continued into the fifth season
and in The X-Files movie, The X-Files: Fight the Future
. This episode also featured the return of the black oil
previously featured in the episodes "Piper Maru
" and "Apocrypha
", which became known as the "black cancer". The episode's prison scenes were inspired by Aleksander Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.
Additional scenes featuring the Cigarette Smoking Man and Well-Manicured Man were cut due to time pressures.
described this episode and the following episode as being action-heavy and lots of fun. This episode earned a Nielsen rating of 12.2, with an 18 share. It was viewed by 18.85 million people.
The X-Files
The X-Files is an American science fiction television series and a part of The X-Files franchise, created by screenwriter Chris Carter. The program originally aired from to . The show was a hit for the Fox network, and its characters and slogans became popular culture touchstones in the 1990s...
television series
Television program
A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...
. It was the eighth episode broadcast in the show's fourth season. "Tunguska" was the first of a two part episode featuring the return of Alex Krycek and the agents coming into possession of a Martian rock containing alien life. Mulder travels to Russia with Krycek to find out more about the rock, where he is imprisoned in a Russian slave labor camp.
Plot
The episode opens in medias resIn medias res
In medias res or medias in res is a Latin phrase denoting the literary and artistic narrative technique wherein the relation of a story begins either at the mid-point or at the conclusion, rather than at the beginning In medias res or medias in res (into the middle of things) is a Latin phrase...
to Dana Scully
Dana Scully
FBI Special Agent Dana Katherine Scully, M.D. is a fictional character and protagonist on the Fox television series The X-Files , played by Gillian Anderson. She also appeared in two theatrical films based on the series...
as she is brought before a Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
select committee
Select committee
A select committee is a special subcommittee of a legislature or assembly governed under a committee system, like Robert's Rules of Order. They are often investigative in nature, collecting data or evidence for a law or problem, and will dissolve immediately after they report their findings to...
to be questioned about the whereabouts of her partner, Fox Mulder
Fox Mulder
FBI Special Agent Fox William Mulder is a fictional character and protagonist in the American Fox television shows The X-Files and The Lone Gunmen, two science fiction shows about a government conspiracy to hide or deny the truth of Alien existence. Mulder's peers consider his theories on...
. Scully refuses to answer the committee's questions and attempts to read a statement denouncing the conspiracy within the government
Syndicate (The X-Files)
The Syndicate is a fictional "shadow government" group featured in The X-Files television show and feature film created by Chris Carter. They were also known as The Elders, The Consortium, and The Group...
. Senator Sorenson, the committee's adversarial chairman, threatens to hold Scully in contempt of Congress
Contempt of Congress
Contempt of Congress is the act of obstructing the work of the United States Congress or one of its committees. Historically the bribery of a senator or representative was considered contempt of Congress...
.
Ten days earlier, at Honolulu Airport, a courier returning from the Republic of Georgia is subjected to a search by customs officers. One of the officers removes a glass canister from the courier's briefcase and accidentally shatters it, exposing both men to the black oil
Black Oil
Black Oil may refer to:* Black Oil , an alien virus in the X-Files episode The Colonist* a sunflower variety...
. Meanwhile, in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, Mulder and Scully take part in an FBI raid against a domestic terrorist group. Mulder's tipster within the group is revealed to be Alex Krycek
Alex Krycek
Alex Krycek is a fictional character in the long-running American science fiction show, The X-Files portrayed by Nicholas Lea. Initially introduced in the second season as a partner for main character Fox Mulder in the absence of his previous partner, Dana Scully, Krycek grew to become one of the...
, who had been released from the missile silo
Apocrypha (The X-Files)
"Apocrypha" is a 1996 episode of The X-Files television series. It was the sixteenth episode broadcast in the show's third season. Apocrypha continues the previous episode's storyline regarding the appearance of an alien black oil.- Plot :...
while the terrorists were conducting a salvage hunt. Krycek has now turned against the Smoking Man, and tells the distrustful agents that he can help expose his activities.
Krycek leads the agents to Dulles International Airport, where they try to apprehend a second courier carrying a diplomatic pouch from Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
. The courier leads the agents on a pursuit through the airport, but drops the pouch before escaping. The pouch is revealed to carry a seemingly unremarkable rock. Mulder has Krycek confined at the high rise apartment of Assistant Director Skinner
Walter Skinner
FBI Assistant Director Walter Sergei Skinner is a fictional character in the American FOX television shows The X-Files and The Lone Gunmen, two science fiction shows about a government conspiracy to hide or deny the truth of Alien existence...
before having the rock analyzed at NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
's Goddard Space Flight Center
Goddard Space Flight Center
The Goddard Space Flight Center is a major NASA space research laboratory established on May 1, 1959 as NASA's first space flight center. GSFC employs approximately 10,000 civil servants and contractors, and is located approximately northeast of Washington, D.C. in Greenbelt, Maryland, USA. GSFC,...
. Dr. Sacks, a NASA scientist, tells Mulder and Scully that the rock is a prehistoric meteorite
Meteorite
A meteorite is a natural object originating in outer space that survives impact with the Earth's surface. Meteorites can be big or small. Most meteorites derive from small astronomical objects called meteoroids, but they are also sometimes produced by impacts of asteroids...
fragment which might contain fossilized alien bacteria.
Skinner is approached by the Smoking Man, who demands that the pouch be returned. The courier breaks into Skinner's apartment and searches for the pouch, only to be killed by Krycek. Meanwhile, Dr. Sacks cuts into the fragment, but inadvertently releases the black oil inside; the organism penetrates the scientist's hazmat suit
Hazmat suit
A hazmat suit is a garment worn as protection from hazardous materials or substances. A hazmat suit is generally combined with breathing apparatus for protection and may be used by firefighters, emergency personnel responding to toxic spills, researchers, specialists cleaning up contaminated...
and puts him in a coma
Coma
In medicine, a coma is a state of unconsciousness, lasting more than 6 hours in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light or sound, lacks a normal sleep-wake cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. A person in a state of coma is described as...
-like state. Mulder travels to New York to visit Marita Covarrubias, who reveals that the fragment originated from the Russian province of Krasnoyarsk
Krasnoyarsk Krai
Krasnoyarsk Krai is a federal subject of Russia . It is the second largest federal subject after the Sakha Republic, and Russia's largest krai, occupying an area of , which is 13% of the country's total territory. The administrative center of the krai is the city of Krasnoyarsk...
and provides the documents needed to travel there. Mulder reluctantly brings along Krycek, who is fluent in Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
.
In Charlottesville, Virginia
Charlottesville, Virginia
Charlottesville is an independent city geographically surrounded by but separate from Albemarle County in the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States, and named after Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the queen consort of King George III of the United Kingdom.The official population estimate for...
, the Smoking Man is admonished by the Well-Manicured Man when the latter learns about Mulder's travels. Skinner and the agents are subpoenaed
Subpoena
A subpoena is a writ by a government agency, most often a court, that has authority to compel testimony by a witness or production of evidence under a penalty for failure. There are two common types of subpoena:...
to appear before Senator Sorenson's panel over the missing pouch; when Skinner questions Scully about Mulder's whereabouts, she is not forthcoming. Meanwhile, as Mulder and Krycek hike through the forests of Krasnoyarsk, the former theorizes that the fragment may be tied to Tunguska event
Tunguska event
The Tunguska event, or Tunguska blast or Tunguska explosion, was an enormously powerful explosion that occurred near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in what is now Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, at about 7:14 a.m...
, a mysterious cosmic impact which occurred in the area in 1908. The two men come across a slave labor camp, but are captured by the taskmasters and thrown into a gulag
Gulag
The Gulag was the government agency that administered the main Soviet forced labor camp systems. While the camps housed a wide range of convicts, from petty criminals to political prisoners, large numbers were convicted by simplified procedures, such as NKVD troikas and other instruments of...
.
Skinner and Scully meet with Senator Sorenson who questions them on the death of the courier and the location of Agent Mulder. Mulder talks with a fellow prisoner who tells him that innocent people have been captured and brought here to be subjected to experiments. Immediately afterwards guards burst into the room and inject Mulder with a syringe. When Mulder awakens he is in a large room bound with chicken wire along with many other prisoners. Black material is dumped onto his face, infecting him with the oily black worms.
Production
This episode was inspired by a Martian rock that was believed to have contained biological activity, announced by NASANASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
in August, 1996. The writers combined this concept with two other previously discussed storyline ideas, the return of Alex Krycek
Alex Krycek
Alex Krycek is a fictional character in the long-running American science fiction show, The X-Files portrayed by Nicholas Lea. Initially introduced in the second season as a partner for main character Fox Mulder in the absence of his previous partner, Dana Scully, Krycek grew to become one of the...
and a look at the Russian counterpart to The X-Files
The X-Files
The X-Files is an American science fiction television series and a part of The X-Files franchise, created by screenwriter Chris Carter. The program originally aired from to . The show was a hit for the Fox network, and its characters and slogans became popular culture touchstones in the 1990s...
. The writers of the show desired to expand the mythology globally, a concept that continued into the fifth season
The X-Files (season 5)
-Episodes:Episodes marked with an asterisk are part of the series' mytharc. Episodes with a double asterisk are part of the series' Alien Mythology....
and in The X-Files movie, The X-Files: Fight the Future
The X-Files (film)
The X-Files is a 1998 American science fiction-thriller film written by Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz, and directed by Rob Bowman. It is the first feature film based on The X-Files series created by Carter that revolves around a fictional FBI paranormal investigation unit called the X-Files...
. This episode also featured the return of the black oil
Black Oil
Black Oil may refer to:* Black Oil , an alien virus in the X-Files episode The Colonist* a sunflower variety...
previously featured in the episodes "Piper Maru
Piper Maru
"Piper Maru" is a 1996 episode of The X-Files television series. It was the fifteenth episode broadcast in the show's third season. Piper Maru introduces the alien black oil and features the return of Alex Krycek.- Plot :...
" and "Apocrypha
Apocrypha (The X-Files)
"Apocrypha" is a 1996 episode of The X-Files television series. It was the sixteenth episode broadcast in the show's third season. Apocrypha continues the previous episode's storyline regarding the appearance of an alien black oil.- Plot :...
", which became known as the "black cancer". The episode's prison scenes were inspired by Aleksander Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.
Additional scenes featuring the Cigarette Smoking Man and Well-Manicured Man were cut due to time pressures.
Reception
David DuchovnyDavid Duchovny
David William Duchovny is an American actor, writer and director. He has won Golden Globe awards for his work as FBI Special Agent Fox Mulder on The X-Files and as Hank Moody on Californication.-Early life:...
described this episode and the following episode as being action-heavy and lots of fun. This episode earned a Nielsen rating of 12.2, with an 18 share. It was viewed by 18.85 million people.