Mulder and Scully are contacted from beyond the grave…

If nothing else cemented the non-canonical nature of the IDW/Audible X-Files Season 10 stories, it’s This, which confirms once and for all that the Lone Gunmen didn’t survive beyond the end of the ninth season of the TV show, no matter what wonderful ideas Joe Harris had for a new secret base under Arlington Cemetery. It’s a shame, but what This does is give the Gunmen – or at least Langly – a degree of life after death.

My hope about Barbara Hershey’s character being linked to her appearance on Damien almost seems to hold water, given that aspect to it, but there’s a far more mundane explanation given for who she is, and her links to the FBI, Mulder, Scully and Skinner. This is an X-Files for 2018, with overt references to the low regard in which the Bureau is held in some quarters – and some troubling suggestions as to the links between the executive branch and the Russians. (Which goes far beyond “collusion”!) You do have to wonder though if people on the production team are Doctor Who fans – you’ll sense a certain amount of Capaldi’s first season about aspects of this.

It’s a fast-paced tale – in fact, at times it’s almost frantic – that sees David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson in far more action than probably the whole of the tenth season, with at least two attempts on their lives, and some more old clichés dug up in terms of how the bad guys behave. It’s got the style of the old days, but feels like it’s going through the motions.

Verdict: Once upon a time, it was The X-Files that set the agenda; now it’s following, and as yet doesn’t really feel like it’s firing on all cylinders. 7/10

Paul Simpson