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Secondary, Tertiary, and Other Characters and Guest Stars: From CSM, Krychek and the Lone Gunmen to Mutants and Vampires and Psychics, Oh My


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The friend of mine who convinced me to watch The X Files loves Musings Of A Cigarette Smoking Man, and I, well, didn't. I find it so strange that the man playing CSM in that episode is now (in the course of my watch) playing his son. That's just an odd choice, given that he's memorable in Musings and looks the very same. I know many in the series have been cast in different episodes, but really?

One thing I dearly love about ol' CSM is that when he feels he's losing his foothold with his associates he sort of panics and immediately tries to assert his importance. It's sort of pathetic. And interesting, for such a sly antagonist.

And I loved his exchange with (one of the) Jeremiah Smith(s) in s4 Herrenvolk, I think it is. One of the things that sometimes bugs me about Carter's writing is that there are giant chunks of dialogue that seem like a monologue as they go on longer and longer. CSM sounded convincing in the exchange.

And in s2 One Breath, the line about having seen presidents die is chilling.

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From Essence: "It's gonna take more bullets than you could ever fire to win this game... but one bullet... and I can give you a thousand lives."

Krycek is by a wide margin my favourite X-Files character, and probably one of my favourite TV characters. It helps that Nicholas Lea is brilliant.

 

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Aw, Alex.  My favorite XF character by far.  (I try not to think about the episode you're referencing, though ;p )  And Nick Lea... yeah.  

Alex was interesting because he was both inscrutable (we were always wondering how much he really knew, what his real motivation was at any given moment, etc) and "human" (as in, he seemed to be scrambling to survive, he usually paid dearly for his mistakes, etc.)  I think the balance of those two things was what made me like him so much.  He wasn't the kind of bad guy who walked away unscathed. His motivations weren't usually clear, but whatever reasons he'd have for doing something, he tended to pay the price. 

Alex had the single best line of the show, IMO: "There is no truth... These men, they make it up as they go along."  I always felt it summed up what was going on in the writers' room.  It was like the show's great Freudian slip or something.

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Alex had the single best line of the show, IMO: "There is no truth... These men, they make it up as they go along."

 

True.  Maybe Mulder's greatest failing was insisting that the truth was, indeed, out there.

Krycek and Mulder - their similarities and their differences - are such a fascinating study, IMO.  It's almost like they're the younger versions of CSM and Bill Mulder, in a way.  They always have a grudging respect for each other, even though at times they are allies and at times the worst of enemies.  But Krycek, like CSM, is willing to go to lengths that Mulder just won't go to.

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Amanda Nelligan is one of the eleventy things I love about Small Potatoes, and her portrayer Christine Cavanaugh died last week at only 51 years of age.

 

"Were you abducted?"

"Huh?  No, he dropped by my apartment one day and one thing just sort of led to another."

"But the baby's father is an alien."

"No, no, I didn't say he was an alien, I said he's from another planet. His name is Luke Skywalker. He's what's known as a Jedi knight."
"Did he have a light saber?"
"No, he didn't bring it. He did sing his song for me though."
"How many times have you seen Star Wars, Amanda?"
"Three hundred sixty eight. I should break 400 by Memorial Day."
"Okay. Thank you."

Edited by Bastet
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Susan Blommaert (Mrs. Paddock) played a judge in an episode of L&O: SVU I watched a few minutes of while going around the dial the other day, and she kicked all kinds of ass in a two-minute scene.  I had to go to IMDb to get her name, and apparently she appeared (as that judge) in eight more episodes after that, so they knew a good thing when they saw it.

 

Also, am I the only one who didn't know/remember Mrs. Paddock's first name was Phyllis?

 

There's really no point to any of this, other than when I was going around the dial and saw her, I squealed, "Mrs. Paddock!"  I love Mrs. Paddock.  That is all.

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The last time I saw Susan Blommaert was The Good Wife, I think. Just a short scene unfortunately, and not really enough to leave an impression on anyone that don't know her. But I squealed "Paddock!" when she appeared.

And her being called Phyllis is something I've always remembered for some reason. Some things just stick.

Edited by joelene
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I've been re-watching Cagney & Lacey (one of my other all-time favorite shows, and one of the few I liked all the way through to the end) lately, and there are appearances from several XF peeps.  Including Sheila Larken in a memorable episode as the abused wife of a detective; the first time I saw Mrs. Scully, I knew she was familiar and soon flashed back to that role.

 

Anyway, seeing Christopher Allport ("Jack Willis") in another great episode reminded me that during my last C&L re-watch I looked up him and learned he had passed away in 2008 at age 60 when he was killed in an avalanche.  Sad.  He was a good character actor. 

 

And he was almost 50 years old in Lazarus.  He did not look 20 years older than Gillian!  (Which is particularly impressive, given what a baby she looked like in season one.)

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