Slashdot Mirror
The Lone Gunmen Are Dead
Mike Perry (And many,many others) writes: "In an astounding move after the cancellation of the show, Chris Carter killed
off the Lone Gunmen in tonight's episode of the X-Files. After a short
introduction that re-introduced the group as trying to save "a world that isn't too kind
to idealists," the episode progressed until the Gunmen realized their destiny
with Langley's quotes about Joey Ramone, and then Byer's quote "We never gave
up, and we never will. In the end, if that's all they can say about us, it'll
do." The episode then built to an ending where the Gunmen group gave their
lives to thwart a bio-terrorist financed by a business tycoon.I don't know about you guys, but back in the prime of the X-Files, these guys
were as close a role model as I could find on television as a kid. I was
deeply disappointed with the cancellation of the show (sure the pilot sucked,
but the next few episodes were good). I feel glad that these characters were
allowed to retire with dignity before the end of the show."
CD: Oops, sorry about the spoiler, when I scheduled the post I miscalculated the timing. I know, I'm evil. I promise I won't ruin the next 4 episodes or however many they have left.
i live on the west coast, i was about to watch it, thanks for the spoiler warnings. HOW FUCING STUPID ARE YOU. Thanks for ruining the episode.
Photos.
Thank you for ruining the episode for us on the west cost!
Idjits.
The cake is a pie
Yeah not since Sneakers had we seen real hacking.
Way to go, fuckmonkeys. Hey by the way, Darth Vader was Luke's father.
Not because of the cheesy way they killed them off, but because I had taken it for granted that these three goofballs would always be there.
It was kinda nice in the part where they had to cover up for their lack of equipment, blaming it on upgrades and giving them all away to charity, when for real they had spent it all on finding Yves.
Jimmy also made a nice comeback from the Lone Gunmen era. Man, I really really wished Mulder was back for this episode. He had a real bond with these guys. And I believe with Lone Gunmen gone, and with the curtains coming down next month, one of the most hated/loved series is leaving us all.
Rapid Nirvana
Oops, couldn't be bothered.
If I were watching these last episodes as they came out (instead of taping for viewing in a month or two) I would be TICKED OFF that one of the most popular sci-fi series had a major plot point published on Slashdot before it's seen by all of the continental US. (As it is, I'm only watching the rest of the series out of loyalty to the original 7 years I loved the show.)
Yup, that story was posted at 8:20 pm Pacific Daylight Time, 40 minutes before X-files starts.
Before I can see the episode in Seattle (major /. hangout, I believe), the death of some major characters is put on the front page.
Sheesh, it should have been in the [Read More] section with a spoiler warning. Publish it, but give me a chance to experience it first.
Course, I stopped giving a shit about 4 seasons ago.
Actually this was mentioned weeks ago on aint-it-cool-news.com. The episode title is "Jump the Shark", a reference to jumptheshark.com.
But then again, I have been living 23 minutes into the future lately. (I watched the Star Trek episode of Futurama with full end credit this morning.)
"Trademarks are the heraldry of the new feudalism."
You ever hear of something called the west coast? See, there's this whole other world out there that doesn't get TV shows at the exact same time as YOU do.
I'm also going to join in and state that this was the stupidest thing /. has done in awhile. X Files isn't airing for another goddamn half an hour and you blow it right there in the headline.
And furthermore, tell Jon Katz that it's "spoiler warning" not "spoilage" and stop having him mention the evils of Time Warner AOL when he sold the rights to your story to New Line Films - owned by them.
In fact, slashdot's entire cultural coverge is pretty weak and needs an overhaul.
** http://www.nkhumanrights.or.kr/ ** Human rights in North Korea. 1 million estimated dead from starvation.
I'd be anxious to sweep under the rug any characters featured in a show depicting a near collision with the Twin Towers and a commercial jet. That plot was creepy even when I first saw the show, and thought that could NEVER happen. Interesting to think that's now going to be one of those shows (that episode at least) locked away forever never to see the light again. As far as the actors, those guys were funny, I liked what little I did see of them.
Even John Katz knows enough to put spoiler notices on his articles and hides the meat in the BODY, not the bloody header (never mind putting it in a completely unthoughtful, unoriginal title). For crying out loud Chrisd, thanks for ruining the episode for me.
Just about every other news site out there that deals with TV/movie info knows what spoiler warnings are and how to use them. May I politely suggest that the editors of Slashdot take a peek at Dark Horizons or Trek Today and get a clue.
Not everyone in this world lives by the schedule of the US East coast. Twit.
I liked the Loan Gunmen (Fox didn't give it a chance, what was it 4 or 5 episodes). The episode was very good, up until they got killed. I would liked to have seen them save the world, get new funding, live to fight another day, and continueing with saving the world. Mulder didn't even show up for the furneral!!!!
With X-Files ending, EFC sucking, no order for Futurama, Stargate with only 1 season left (and Daniel done), Andromeda geting worse, Invisiable Man cancled (my favorite), Lexx cancled (it's a good laugh), 7 Days gone, Specail Unit 2 gone.......sci-fi fans have had a really really bad year or so.
The only bright spot is that Enterprise is getting better.
heath
Hey, you guys on the West Coast, don't take this so hard, you've seen this scene already. It's a straight rip-off from the death-of-Spock scene. Separated by panes of glass...the friends struggle to open the door...but no, can't do that, they're already dead...so we have the mauldin goodbye...at least they didn't say anything about the needs of the many and needs of the few.
Oh, and in the last scene they get buried in Arlington.
Did it ever occur to you that some people care about things that you don't? Of course it's a TV show, but it's a TV show that a lot of people happen to like. Perhaps you can't relate to enjoying the twists in a story, but for long time fans it is something that they are capable of appreciating, and something that the writers use their craft to portray. Quit being a wet blanket.
When I was a kid, we only had one Darth.
With regards to the Slashdot reader reactions, hey, it's understandable. Do I love the Lone Gunmen? Nah. I liked them though. But what happens if the next time around Slashdot spoils the plot to something I'm really interested in. That's what annoys me about this. Completely irresponsible. Katz manages to prefix his reviews with spoiler warnings, so why couldn't Chris D? It's "A Good Idea" when discussing the plot to a movie or television show that not everyone may have seen.
How Many times has cancer man been killed?
Remeber, this is the x-files were talking about. a person on this show, is not dead until you see a body, in peiceis on the ground.
and even then its not garunteed that they are dead
I'm very very serious: I was so fucking shocked by what I saw, it didn't even occur to me to submit it to slashdot. I stopped watching X-Files last season, but I saw on an ad that the Lone Gunman were featured in this ep so I stayed to watch...
:(
If you're upset about spoilers, don't be. Knowing what happens isn't going to blunt it when you see it happens
I hate Chris Carter. I hope the feds catch him typing "ALLAH BOMB PRESIDENT" to someone on Instant Messenger.
[o]_O
CD: Oops, sorry about the spoiler, when I scheduled the post I miscalculated the timing. I know, I'm evil. I promise I won't ruin the next 4 episodes or however many they have left.
The ENTIRE THREAD, including the TITLE was designed to be a SPOILER. And you happily posted it right on the front page. Don't EVEN cry about mis-timing the posting of this thread. You did something incredibly stupid by even POSTING a spoiler story like this, regardless of the timing. What were you thinking?!
The concept of the Lone Gunmen being buried in Arlington is just so completely wrong I don't know where to begin.
I know it's already been said... Chris was highly inconsiderate to half the population of the country and probably 2/3rds of Slashdot readers.
::Colz Grigor
But there's a way to prevent him from doing it to us again!!!
Edit your homepage, scroll down to the "Exclude Stories from the Homepage" section. In the left-most (Authors) column, four down, you will find a checkbox next to the name "chrisd". Make certain there's a checkmark in it (or whatever the image is, since I'm sure you're all using different skins than I am). Then scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page and click the button marked "Save".
Once done, chrisd will never spoil another show, movie, or anything for you again.
Finally, a personal message to chrisd:
Thanks a lot! What a maroon.
So here will be tonights hockey score in the Detroit vs. Vancouver game.
Detroit - 2
Vancouver - 3
It was decided in overtime.
Oh, and yes, Peter Parker is also Spiderman.
Anyhow, it's 9pm on the west coast so no real point in changing titles (something we are loathe to do), and well, a big apology to everyone who cares, and a big overall apology to people further along the dateline who we probably regularly ruin shows for. (But it is just TV, after all)
chrisd
Co-Editor, Open Sources
Open Source Program Manager, Google, Inc.
the fact that your role model is TV. And even moreso, fictional TV.
It's not even an issue of timing with respect to the West Coast. Given the geek predilection for spoiler avoidance, spoilers for TV/movies should _always_ be "Read More"d.
ALLAH BOMB PRESIDENT or TRIGGER HAPPY PILOT would both be appropriate.
Rod Taylor
...Jumped the Shark?
http://www.jumptheshark.com/
Cynicism, like dogmatism, can be an excuse for intellectual laziness. - Susan Shirk
(geez, guys, after the first dozen or so complaints about spoilers, you'd stop adding more redundant postings... Aren't you smart enough to know that if a show is about to come on, you don't read a news article about it unless you don't mind the plot being revealed? Get a grip.)
Personally, I was very glad to see this news story - I have not followed the show for several seasons (frankly, I haven't even seen it regularly since the movie), and the Lone Gunmen idea was one of the last plot devices I ever really liked about the show. To hear that they met a noble end makes me wish I'd seen this episode... and being on the west coast, I might have time to turn it on and watch it, due to ths article's timely placement. At least now I can set a reminder to watch the repeat.
Get off my launchpad!
This is not a spoiler. It's your own damn fault for reading it. Don't you know that the great slashdot blackout is going on?
Unbelievably, pig-headedly, unforgiveably s-t-u-p-i-d.
MAC | A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
What in the world?!?!?!
/.
First, I hadn't watched it yet. I taped it tonight, as I won't actually have time to watch it until tomorrow. So, the spoilage, well, at least lessens the sting, though I was shocked to see the headline on
I loved Byars. We had a group at college that got together and watched the Files on a semi-regular basis (our peak was the summer of '99 - everybody would come back from work, we were living in a dorm, and we'd all go down to the tv room and pop in an x-files tape, and watch classic episodes), and each of us was labeled with the person that he most resembled. (actually, we did have one girl who was kind of in the group, and she had red hair, so she became Scully.) I was Byars. I could really identify with him - had pretty much the same personality. Mulder was flamboyant, Langley was a hippie freak, Frohike was a dirty old man, but Byars was just a nice, calm guy.
Stinks that they're dead. At least, I presume, they went out in something of a blaze of glory and died for a good cause. It's not like they'll be making more X-Files without them For that matter, it's a good thing they won't be making any more X-Files. I personally think they should have cut the show off after season 7, and permanently left everybody wondering what exactly Scully was pregnant with (and by whom, and all that).
Learn about spoilers!
Editors, learn about spoilers!
You've just told me how my favourite TV characters
end up with no way I could possibly have avoided seeing it (except by not reading slashdot).
Way to go.
btw: Forget the "few hours too early" apology, some of us won't get those episodes for *months*.
Bah.
chrid fucked up. Then chrisd apologized. If I had made this mistake and a zillion people jumped down my throat I would feel like shit and I bet chrisd does. Leave the guy alone.
-
Systems Administrators: We read the manual so you don't have to.
Your error is that you assume that the stories of Jesus and Gandhi don't rely on the experiencer to be surprised and have their hearts tugged (supposedly.)
The other error you make is that you assume that the story shown on FOX this evening is of equal quality to the other stories. > Without the surprise ending of the Gunmen dying, the rest of the story is pretty damned lame. (Except for the bit at the beginning with the Jupiter 2.)
There should be a moratorium on the use of the apostrophe.
Max V.
NeXTMail/MIME Mail welcome
What does it take to get buried in Arlington? I can't imagine that jobless geeks who were buddies with a renegade FBI agent and helped him out under the table are an easy sell to the brass who make such decisions.
There should be a moratorium on the use of the apostrophe.
Max V.
NeXTMail/MIME Mail welcome
Even the moderators have lost their minds around here... I suppose they've lost the capacity to think critically too.
After all this, I decided to watch the hockey instead. And Vancouver lost. Now I'm really depressed...
========================================
Death will come, and will have your eyes
-- Pavese
I though the internet took three more hours to reach the west coast too!
First of all, I'd like to preface this moment of full-out mainstream sci-fi geekiness by saying this: Anybody who replies by saying I have no life will promptly be ignored. Thank God (or higher power of your choice) I don't live like you.
Anyway, at the end after Frohike pulls the fire alarm and they're all standing there with their hands against the glass talking to Jimmy, it really reminded me of the end of Star Trek II. I couldn't help but think of Kirk and Spock staring at each other across the glass as Spock faces his death. Of course, there are probably a number of similar scenes on film and in plays, but that one stuck out in my mind. The reference may or may not be intentional, but I also couldn't help but think that Scully has attended a premature funeral before. However, it's highly unlikely that they'll bring these guys back since these last five episodes are supposed to be all about tying up the myriad loose ends the scriptwriters left. As I said in my other comment, they've killed most of the good characters (Deep Throat, CSM, Krycek, and now TLG) and these last 4 episodes had better be really good.
Oh yeah, by the way:
THE PANIC ROOM: Jodie Foster and her kid get out of the Panic Room but all the thieves die or get arrested.
STAR WARS EPISODE II: Anakin's mom gets killed by Sandpeople. He freaks out and slays an entire village. Later in the movie, Anakin loses an arm to the evil Count Dooku -- who turns out to be Darth Tyranus. Anakin marries Padme.
CITIZEN KANE: "Rosebud" was his sled.
IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE: No man is a failure, who has friends.
BRAVEHEART: He arrested, then gets his intestines ripped out to the music of Enya.
CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON: They all fight a lot. The main guy dies of a poison dart.
What, Daniel Jackson leaves Stargate SG-1?!
Damn arrogant Brits, spoiling shows for those of us stuck with patronizing networks that delayed the second half of the season! Not even a "Stargate Spoiler!" subject line!
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong. -- H L Mencken
All I see here is a bunch of people bitching about spoilers. Fer cryin' out loud, why not bitch about the serious audience fuck that Chris Carter pulled when he canceled the TLG series.
That's right, that bag of bones waste of space left the series hanging with a 2 parter ep. That was a monumental cluster fuck of the people watching the show. There they are stuck in a vault in a building and the BBP (Big Bad People) are coming to get them. We have *NO* fucking clue how they got out of the mess.
Damn him, damn him to all hell.
(for the clue impaired, this post is dripping with sarcasm and wit)
[NOTE: Fox canceled the show, they are proportionally responsible shitbags]
Ok, I'm gonna burn some karma on this one but I'm really angry at the /. editors for letting such a spoiler on the frontpage without even a warning.
:(
Yes, this message is redundant, so moderate me down but I just had to say it.
True warriors use the Klingon Google
Silly, by 24 hours someone else might have posted the article. Remember, the goal is not to inform, but to get the post out as quickly as possible (possibly explaining the frequent "oops" posts of late--better to post a retraction than to be scooped).
nice spoiler for those of use who time-shift.
and your lame ass apology just somehow makes
it worse.
Finally, a personal message to chrisd:
Thanks a lot! What a maroon.
Yeah, I second that. I hope if he still-feels-fine after the 'worst spoiler ever'...
I wonder if he will find out in the last few episodes? I think he is the last person to know. :(
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Unfortunately, he reads slashdot too.
I think that this spoiler for those on the west coast rocketed chrisd to jonkatz status.
WHOA, whoa, whoa. Think about what you're saying, man. Let's not go overboard here...
... for the spoiler.
I *was* going to watch this episode, which a friend had taped for me. So much for that.
Seriously, think twice about posting something like this - period.
Poorly written, filled with chese, complete lack of pacing, the deaths of those characters for the SOLE PURPOSE of ending the fan mail campaign asking to brink back "The Long Gunman" spinoff, and plot holes you could shoot a Kennedy through... The more I watch, the more I think that the writers have begun to really hate and resent this show, so they want to make damn sure that when they end it, it stays ended. Like, piss off and disgust your fans enough right at the end that not a single person will care enough to write a letter asking for more. Either that, or the guys at FOX have finally decided that it's time to retire, so they are trying thier best to get dumped out on the street. Bye bye X-Files, bye bye Futurama... bye bye FOX!
"Your superior intellect is no match for our puny weapons!"
Well perhaps if you spent a little more time in the real world and less time staring at a monitor...
The fact is this is NOT news. It's been known for at LEAST 2 months that they were killed off.
I can seriously Buffy for everyone as well, so I suggest you all shut the fuck up.
Living in South America with Hitler, Elvis and JFK.
"Your superior intellect is no match for our puny weapons!"
Distributed Destruction Of Show!
Buggering up the posting is bad enough, but not changing the title is just awful. Not only are you offending readers of your own site but you're causing any site that syndicates your headlines to do the same.
The article should have been (and still should be) pulled from the front page and replaced with an article saying you screwed up with an X-Files spoiler and provide a link for anyone who actually wants to read/contribute to the original article now they have been sufficiently warned.
If someone had posted such spoilage in a random thread they'd have been modded to oblivion immediatly. We can't do that to your posting, so you should have.
Cretin (in this particular instance).
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
Thanks, asswipes! I taped the show for later. I didn't think checking
Jon Katz is an asshole.
He fids out right before he and Scully get killed by the big..... oh wait, no, I won't spoil it for you.
"Your superior intellect is no match for our puny weapons!"
I must be a sappy chick. I actually shed a tear for 'em. hehe
Tempted to light a candle for my favorite geek characters on tv...
But guys, this means they won't be in the movies... *sob* I'm gonna go ice cream myself into a coma.
-=Nightasha
I don't bother watching X-Files anymore since the show has gone into the proverbial toilet... Slept through the episode, but bet the roommate that the Lone Gunmen would be the ones to die based on the ad... Thanks for proving me right (and that X-Files is incredibly predictable now, and no longer worth watching)...
Just because you can mod me down, doesn't mean you're right. Shoes for industry!
Uh right. As if you wouldn't be pissed if something you wanted to see was spoiled too.
Let me tell you a little story, I work for a living. When ya work for a living, you want time to enjoy certain things. I wanted to enjoy watching X-Files. Slashdot blew it for me. End of story.
Could I do other stuff? Sure. But I can't do what I wanted to do because of an insensitive slashdot poster.
BTW, it's hypocritical to tell me ot find something more interesting to do when obviously you had time to respond to my post. Why don't you go do something constructive like pet a cat, take a walk, or even masterbate. At least with the latter you have something to show for it at the end. Instead of whining about my whining about it beoing spoilt, take stock of your life, and realize what a sad bastard you are for being a hypocrite.
"Derp de derp."
Congratulations! You have won the Sad Award. You are Captain Saddo McSad of the Sad Brigade!
Maybe now you can go and get a life?
By the way. This won't be shown on TV over here for months... If I still watched the X-Files, I might be pissed off about that. Not all the world gets the same TV shows at the same time.
"Information wants to be paid"
You know, this is a terrible thing that happened and this is the first opening on Slashdot I've seen to actually say so. I and many others offer our heartfelt condolences. One way or another, America and Americans screwed up on this one and we are truly sorry. Canadians have always stood by Americans when the chips are down - for example, on the beaches of Normandy for D-Day, as well as the time that is probably forgotten by 99% of the people now, namely smuggling out some Americans in plain sight from Iran during the embassy hostage crisis over 20 years ago...You have been steadfast allies for all the right reasons and it is very much appreciated. I only hope that the investigation on this incident is an honest and open one, as a first step in making things better...instead of the worse a whitewash / coverup would bring.
..but back in the prime of the X-Files, these guys were as close a role model as I could find on television as a kid.
So you were a kid back in what, 1995? How old are you?
WAAIT one second here.. 1995 was 7 years ago?
Jeezus.. I'm getting old! Scary!
This is the first semi-Insightful comment I have read on Slashdot in the last couple of months.
And it's a signed "Anonymous Coward" comment which no one will probably read because they think "microsoft sucks" comments with +5 represent the smartest people here.
Which, at this rate, they probably do. They talk about the "Great Blackout", but isn't the exodus of insightful commentary to better blogs something that has been happening for a long time, and yet an indication that commentary does not matter to what Slashdot is anymore?
Freedom is the freedom to say 2+2=4, everything else follows...
What I want to know is, what kind of fire alarm system drops two airtight walls around the person pulling the fire alarm? Did they have a problem with kids pulling the alarm and decided to setup a mantrap so it'd hold them until the police came? What if the building was on fire and collapsed around them?
Take your med's, bud. You've gotten a little hot under the collar at some dude on a message board.
Seems to me you should just own up to the fact that he scored a point or two on you. So what. Walk it off, champ.
Might want to lay off the bad grammar and fifth grade insults(even bigger loser) if you want to paint yourself as socially capable and yet different. Just sayin'.
Real X-Files fans know that the show really ended at the movie a few years back. Everything since has just been FOX selling cheap advertising time.
Almost 500 posts in here and about ten of them had something to say other than "Yo, futzheads, thanks for spoiling the show." Don't ya think the idea that he shouldn't have spoiled the ending was pretty thoroughly conveyed by the first, oh, 100 posts that lashed ChrisD?
I was hoping for a little intelligent conversation about how X-Files wrapped up the Lone Gunmen, and instead I was forced to wade through a sewer of repetitive drivel. Hey, but that's okay, folks. *I* was the one who was misguided.
Have they been taken over by Corporate Bureaucrat Robots? Is there any real intelligence left behind all the Perl code or has it taken on a life of its own?
Things are sliding downhill here reeeal fast guys...
Brian
Remember Lexington Green!
COULD I FEEL ANY FUCKING OLDER RIGHT NOW?
When you were a kid!?!?!
Jesus, I need a beer.
---- It puts the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again. It does this whenever it's told.
I'm online commenting on other people online commenting about the imaginary characters of a cancelled television show.
Guess I'll suck the tailpipe now.
"Keep pouting. It really suits you."
Yah, real good burn man. Only Jackie from that 70's Show could have delivered it better.
"Derp de derp."
I admit I was heated there, but I made a pretty good point. Some of us would like to watch our TV shows without knowing what happens in the end. It's bad manners to just blurt it out.
I have no regrets about my complaint. Slashdot has been really good about reviewing movies etc without spoiling what'll happen, but what happened last night was really ignorant.
Mod me down for using the F-word if you like, but do *not* mod me down for saying "That aint't cool." Opinions are what Slashdot's all about.
"Derp de derp."
The LAWRENCE OF ARABIA spoiler should read "The trick is not minding that your legs fall asleep."
"The Crystal Wind is the Storm, and the Storm is Data, and the Data is Life"
I don't think they are restricted from moderating. Note that I'm taking part in the blackout, but justtify this post with the fact that it's totaly offtopic...
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
"I wonder if this ep was an involuted apology by CC, and his attempt to do right by the Gunmen?
...maybe, and/or he wanted to make sure that we wouldn't be seeing unauthorized or really bad spinoffs of the Gunmen by anybody else...
if we can believe Duchovny's claims, CC is a man who likes COMPLETE control of the characters he creates and most esp, doesn't like anybody else to profit from merchandising or marketing them....
THOUGH, that said, REMEMBER, it WAS a "closed casket" funeral...
..and THAT leaves the door open to some hokey way to bring them back at a later time....(ala' what he did with Mulder when CC "killed" him off and brought him "back" for ratings' sweeps)....
Ten quid, she's so easy to blind. And not a word is spoken...
But I'm not contributing anything to the site, just clarifying a point of the blackout.
:(
*sigh* I really don't have any self control
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
that Carter's original arc for the series was only five years.
He had an exit strategy worked out from the beginning. And he had the thing lined up. But then the money started pouring in, and Fox talked him into extending it. Which blew the story line all to hell. Instead of being a mystery, it became a superstitious soap opera.
Then it outlasted David Duchovny's interest.
After he left, total Dullsville. I stopped watching. So did a lot of other people. Now they have no reason at all to keep it going.
--Blair
But...
We never saw them dead. All we saw were some closed coffins being buried. Maybe it's just a ruse to draw out "Mr. Big", the head terrorist. The guys are probably hanging out with Mulder, eating pizza and watching porn videos.
Hey, it's TV. No ever actually dies on a TV show, especially on a science fiction one...
Trickster Coyote
You are just a figment of my imagination.
Ideology is for ideots.
Come on - lets say together now "It's only a TV show!"
Video Game cheats, hints a