Originally Aired 3/29/98
This gets my vote for "Most Polarizing Episode" of the series. I can guess many fans would hate this, first off because it lacks Scully, and Mulder only serves to bookend the episode with scenes in the present day (of 1990.) Secondly, I am sure it gets some hatred because it follows a huge chapter of the mythology and instead of following up, it goes back to the past, much like "Unusual Suspects" from earlier in the season. However, I don't agree with hating it just because it lacks the main characters since the series rarely explored it's roots; I think its a welcome change.
"Travelers" focuses on an investigation of possible communists through the eyes of an FBI Agent named Arthur Dales. In the present he is played by Darren McGavin, who also narrates, while the bulk of Dales' scenes are acted by Fredric Lane. I really like how they recreate the 1940's, since it looks and feels like an entirely different series. People hating the lack of Mulder and Scully will no doubt hate the different atmosphere too, but I like how this has its own identity. The X-Files' sister series Millennium did the same thing with a younger FBI Agent; and that episode also featured the same guest actor playing the FBI's Director. Most of this episode actually feels a bit like an episode of Kolchak the Night Stalker, which was an inspiration for The X-Files. In those episodes, Kolchak (played by McGavin) would narrate portions of each episode and he also stumbles on a monster on a rampage while investigating a different story, much like Dales does in "Travelers." For what this episode is trying to do, I think it excels at creating another world within that of The X-Files. I wish they had revisited the past more, and I'd even like to know exactly what Bill Mulder's role was and how it's linked to the overall conspiracy. After his appearance here and in "Apocrypha", it seems like he would be involved with preserving national security.
Now I can agree with those disliking it because of it's placement within Season Five. The previous episodes, "Patient X" and "The Red and The Black", advanced the mythology and built up a lot of momentum by linking several threads like Scully's abduction and the Russian experiments. It almost feels like that momentum was stalled by going back to the past instead of forward. I understand the use of flashbacks and new characters to make up for a lack of Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny, but rather than "Travelers", why not follow up on new characters they just created last week? It would be nice to actually let Chris Owens (as Agent Spender) carry an episode since he already proved he could do it in Season 4. Since Scully was recently hospitalized in "The Red and The Black", I would have used that to leave her on the sidelines so that Mulder has to investigate an X-File with Spender, who is assigned as his temporary partner.
Another fun part of this episode I haven't mentioned yet is it seemed like David Duchovny was trolling the internet before trolling was a common practice. It would have been fun to see an entire internet fan community explode like that guy's head in Scanners once they saw Mulder with a wedding ring. As for the actual story of "Travelers", I enjoyed it. The conspiracy in this episode doesn't feel forced, unlike when they revisited random abductions in "Max"; this captures the naivety of Season One. The series writers and producers put their faith in a crew of guest stars to carry an hour of the series and it paid off. Looking back, that was a super bold move on the part of both X-Files and FOX to do this so close to the release of The X-Files feature film.
