#my proposal

Why do you think he's standing like that? I have three theories: 1) He's apologizing to the guys for last adventure. 2) He's thinking about what happened in solitude. 3) It's going to be a song or something about his emotions.

Good

So this is lq and a bunch of people walked in front of the camera and I cried but here it is

Also, I mean, shit, if I can come up with something like this there are certainly accountants and fraud prevention specialists who can take these kinds of things and whip up a really excellent set of best practices all convention organizers really ought to follow.

Okay, let's cut to the chase. We are all pretty much certain that the season 11 holdup is most likely due to Gillian's busy schedule (you go girl) and reluctance to be away from her children for the 3 or 4 months it would take to produce the roughly 10 episodes Fox seems to want. I don't think she is completely opposed to doing ANY episodes, or negotiations and talks would never have begun in the first place, but I can't imagine her signing on for 10. Thus, an impasse. What if there were a way to get a 10 episode season that wouldn't require Gillian to be away for so long, and which might also address some of the shortcomings of season 10? Here is my modest proposal, thought up on my drive home tonight!: (Sorry to clog up your dash here, on mobile) Write a season which allows Gillian to only be required for 5 or 6 of the 10 episodes, a couple of which could be filmed in London on sound stages without the other cast. "Wait, wait," you say, "Without Mulder and Scully together, the X Files isn't the X Files!" To which I say, the show can still be very much ABOUT them without them having to be together. Season 8 is a good (okay, not totally good) example of this -- the myth episodes of that season are very much ABOUT Mulder even when he's not onscreen. Also, there is another character I think we COULD care about as much as Mulder and Scully (no, I'm not talking about Miller & Einstein, sigh), and that is William. Of course, we would have to treat him as an integral part of the forward motion of the narrative (you know, like a real child) and not just a lose plot thread that needs to be tied up or brought in deux ex machina style at the end of the series. Here's how you could do 10 episodes with Scully only physically present in about half: Ep 1: Begin back on that damn bridge, use some of the cut footage from season 10 to set the scene and then immediately flash back to early 2012, year of supposed invasion and the beginning of Mulder & Scully's estrangement. Focus mainly on Mulder's mania and obsession at this point in time. Film just a couple minimal scenes between D & G -- maybe even have the characters communicate mainly over the phone so that G doesn't have to be in Vancouver to film them. Ep 2 & 3: Flash to Wyoming, we meet young 2012 era William and a pack of his friends. I'm thinking, fresh-faced Stranger Things/Stand By Me vibe of preteens, with William playing a very "chosen one"- type role in investigating odd occurrences around them. Have the group get caught up in some elements of the larger mythology which lead to William discovering he's adopted, set him on a search for his own truth. Write this in such a way that Mulder & Scully's characters are continually echoed & referenced through William's own character and behavior. Ep 4: Deal further with M & S's estrangement, primarily from Mulder's POV, and his depression when it becomes clear that invasion isn't going to occur and they've sacrificed so much for (apparently) nothing. D & G's interactions here could again be by phone or very minimal so they could be shot quickly later. Ep 5: After Scully leaves him in 2012, Mulder becomes obsessed with finding William and this episode deals with his search (which is unsuccessful) and how it intertwines with the larger mythology, so this is a totally Mulder POV episode. Ep 6: We see Scully trying to make a life away from Mulder, but still getting caught up in X File type adventures during her time as a doctor. These could all be shot on a soundstage in London, without other main cast members. Heck, you could even set this story IN London -- say Scully takes a fellowship abroad or something (she's gotta make that switch from pathology to pediatrics somehow!). Oh, and since she's depressed and away from Mulder, having a bit of a midlife crisis, let's say she dyes her hair blonde, thus not requiring Gillian to wear that god awful wig again. Ep 7: We're back on the bridge, the aliens are invading, and whatever else Chris has planned for My Struggle 3, with emphasis on William's role in things -- which we now actually care more about because we've been given the chance to get to know him a bit! Eps 8 - 10: Whatever else Chris (or ideally Gilligan, the Morgans, Wong, Spotnitz and company) have planned for the post-invasion storyline. Now we're filming in Vancouver, so Gillian's around for this, as well as to film any shorter scenes to be inserted into the preceding episodes. This would all of course require meticulous story planning and having the complete 10 episodes written and scheduled carefully before starting. Which means I have absolutely no hope of something like this happening. But I would be very satisfied by a season like this and wouldn't feel like the absence of Scully in the first 4 or so episodes would hurt my interest in the overall arc.

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