"The Unnatural" by Caroline O'Connell

Spoilers

"It's official.  I am a horse's ass."  Fox Mulder.

I could be very cynical and ask what the hell The Unnatural has to do with
anything to do with The X-Files and Fox Mulder's ongoing search for his
sister.  Mulder and Scully had two brief scenes and the rest was taken up
with an Arthur Dales Flashback.  Travellers II anyone?  I could be cynical,
but The Unnatural, unlike Travellers was such a pleasure to watch from
beginning (or the Big Inning!) to end that I don't want to be.

Actor-Writer-Director (henceforth known as just) David Duchovny makes a
promising debut that's well ensconced in the "Lite" camp, but coming on such
a fine summer's day, and being such a nice light-hearted, sweet episode, I
don't care.  I really enjoyed this despite the lack of our main
protagonists.  Duchovny's effort far outshines the likes of Rain King or
HTGSC simply because of the writing and characterisation.  Let's face it,
having played him for six years, if anyone should know Mulder, it's David
Duchovny.  Those 2 Mulder & Scully scenes were gold!  *That* is how two
people who've worked closely together for 6 years carry on!  I've been
praising DD from a height, but Gillian Anderson and her non-fat tofutti rice
dreamsicle, acting like a smug kid is one more reason to sing her praises.
The woman can do funny, as previously seen in Triangle.  Please get her out
of all those black clothes and black moods and let her be funny.  Give her
and us the laugh we all deserve!

I've never understood the American ideology of "Baseball as a metaphor for
life", but  I do understand people's passion for sport having recently spent
an afternoon in torrential rain, yelling myself hoarse at an Irish Hurling
match (we lost, BTW).  There's a famous quote about soccer - "Football's not
a matter of life and death.  It's more important" and on that basis we have
our plot about an alien who loves baseball so much he chose to die rather
than be forced home and never play again.  Jesse L Martin captures the joy
of Ed Exley's discovery of baseball in a heart-warming performance  He's one
of the main reasons for watching Ally McBeal.  

When I sit down to write a review, I spend my time writing smart arse
comments amidst the plot points.  Looking back over my notes for The
Unnatural, there's a surprising lack of them.  I hope that if David Duchovny
gets an idea for the 7th season, it will feature much more Mulder and Scully
because he writes it so well.

8/10

Stuff 

Moose the pitcher...  Moose and Squirrel... Mulder and Scully.  Ah, I get
it!

Eh hang on, didn't that lovely heather grey tee-shirt get incinerated in One
Son?  Maybe Mulder, like a lot of bachelors buys 3 of everything because it
couldn't be a continuity error... not on the X-Files!

Did I say how much I loved the idea of M&S acting like a couple of 5 year
olds over the evil dreamsicle thing?

A Monty Python moment.  "I'm Arthur Dales and so is my wife."

Eww!  Chewing tobacco has got to be one of the most disgusting things on
this earth!

Girly screams all round from Alien!Exley and Officer Dales.

"Die without honour."  It's official!  The MMABH is Klingon!

Cal
"ET steal home."