Darkness Falls

This weekend I watched a few episodes from season 1 of the X-Files for the first time since I was a young teenager. One episode caught my eye. Mulder and Scully go into the woods to investigate the dissappearance of some loggers. It turns out the loggers cut down some really old trees in which there were some dormant insects, a bit like small fireflies. These attacked the loggers, drained them of all usefull bodily fluids and cocooned them. Except not during daytime or under lights. It turns out that the bugs don't work under light. Cue tense scenes in the log cabin with the petrol for the generator running low. One thing struck me when I rewatched this episode; why didn't they just light a fire? When they made a run for it why not carry burning logs? They were in a forest full of wood, why not use some of it? I also listened to a 1992 interview with Douglas Adams this weekend. He said he didn't like the fact that the rational skeptic was always derided on the X-Files and always turned out to be wrong. I still love the show but some of the conpiracy episodes now look just dumb. The standalone episodes were great, movie quality, well written and filmed and these are the ones that will endure. Even Darkness Falls.