Featured

Celebrating Brad Dourif: X-Files’ Luther Lee Boggs

By Owen Quinn author

Photos copyright Fox

Beyond The Sea is an episode from the first season of The X-Files and one that scared me at the time. Even watching it today, it unnerves me.

It is one of the best Scully episodes and sets the scene for future seasons for the Scully family template. Her dad is played by the late, great Don S Davis, better known to fans as General Hammond from Stargate SG1. It opens at Christmas time where Scully has had her mother and father over for dinner. before they elave, her father asks her if work is good and Scully says yes. She calls him Ahab and he calls her Starbuck. From this brief moment, we see that Scully is close to her parents and has a good relationship with them.

Scully dozes off on the couch and wakes up to see her father sitting in an armchair. His mouth is moving but there is no sound coming out. Her phone rings and it is her mother to tell her that her father died from a massive heart attack an hour before. When Scully looks back at the chair, it is empty.

This is one powerful opening as it places super sceptic Scully right in the middle of her own paranormal event. It is also incredib,y spooky to me especially since the same thing has happened to me.

Scully is back to work much earlier than Mulder would have liked as the funeral won’t take place until noon that day. There’s a nice touch here when he calls her Dana rather than Scully. Scully picks up on it but they are plunged into a double kidnapping case which they only have days to solve. A criminal on Death Row, Luther Lee Boggs, has told the FBI that since he was almost put to death in the gas chamber, it has awakened psychic powers in him. He wants to deal if he can help save the two kidnapped people then his sentence is reduced to life. This time, Mulder is sceptic because it was him who put Boggs in to death row and this sudden claim of being able to see things doesn’t wash with him. It isn’t the power that is in question for Mulder; it is the person delivering it.

The song played at Scully’s Dad’s funeral is restricted to family. Beyond The Sea is played in French. Scully wonders if her father was proud of her since she took a career with the FBI rather than fully pursue medicine. All her mother says when asked was he proud of his daughter is, he was your father.

All of this is vital to setting up the character of Boggs. The first shot we get of him is in an orange jumpsuit, handcuffed with tattooed knuckles. He is in a room talking to Mulder and Scully, slumped in a chair and sweating. He appears to be channelling some entity that spouts things at them and how Boggs must atone for his sins. He wants to deal but Mulder insists he save the victims first.

When handed a piece of cloth from one of the victims, he cries about terrible pain and how the boy Jim is tied with twine. He convulses as if someone is hitting him with a wire coat hanger demonstrating real theatrics. The location is a condemned warehouse cellar and there is a stone angel with a waterfall that is not water. But Mulder reveals that the cloth is from a T shirt of his and not connected to the case. As they leave, Boggs begins to sing Beyond The Sea which catches Scully’s attention. She looks back and her father is there sitting in Bogg’s place. He switches back to Boggs who then asks “Did you get my message, Starbuck?”

In this scene alone, the audience is not sure if Boggs is telling the truth or not. He has already planted the seed in Scully’s head and this is compounded when she drives home and sees a stone angel and a waterfall that is not water. It is a street sign nd she stops at the abandoned warehouse where she finds a charm owned by the kidnap victim.

It’s a nice switch in perspectives as Scully is now leading towards believing to which Mulder reacts badly. Her is afraid her judgement is clouded and she is putting herself in danger. Is Boggs playing them, orchestrating the kidnap with a accomplice from outside? They have three days left.

When Boggs gives them a location and warns Mulder not to go near the white cross because Boggs sees his blood on it, we, as an audience, are torn. We see what he sees when he describes the kidnapper, his emotions and more attacks with the coat hanger.

The greatest trick that fake mediums pull is they feed on that slight hope fo grieving people that they will hear a whisper of something from the other side that will give them comfort their loved ones are still here. People will pay thousands just for that. And while I know there are genuine mediums out there, there a hundred charlatans on top of that again. But is Boggs real or is he getting his information about Scully from outside somehow? He isn’t getting it from his weekly phone calls because he uses that to taunt Mulder that Scully believes him so why doesn’t he? He has no visitors so could it be Boggs really is getting these visions from beyond?

His credibility is further cemented when they find one of the victims exactly where Boggs said. Mulder is shot and to Scully’s horror, his blood is on a white cross just as Bogg’s said. When the kidnapper is identified as Lucas Henry who was but never proven to be Bogg’s partner.

Furious, she storms into Bogg’s cell and screams at him that she will gas him out of this world if Mulder dies. All of this has been a revenge plot to get Mulder for convicting him. But Boggs plays mind games and she asks him to let her speak to her father.

This is the most pivotal scene in the show as Boggs seemingly forces the spirit of her father back until he gets the deal he wants. Boggs’ hell is going to the death chamber over and over for all eternity. He reveals his family were there when he went to die; the family he murdered. He claims he left his body and souls flooded his body giving him his powers.

There is almost a childlike delivery to Boggs as he manipulates and plays mind games with Scully. Scully fights against it saying for Mulder and her father, where they are is not cold. Up against the clock and the wall, Scully lies that she has gotten his deal. Tearfully, Boggs tries to locate the last victim. He tells her where to find him but admits he knows she is lying but that she tried. He warns her not to follow the blue devil. Scully stops Henry and is finally forced to admit that Boggs is in fact telling the truth. If he had been in cahoots then he would have warned him of the same danger’ a rotten strut on a briidge before a picture of a blue devil.

He promises her the final mesage when he is put in the chair. We see all the people he murdered lining the corridor as he is led to the chair. But Scully is not there to get her message.

We finish off with Scully visiting Mulder in hospital and she is trying to logically explain how Boggs knew those things about her. She admits she is afraid of believing and she always knew what her father left unsaid because as he mother said, he was her father.

Grief can do things to us that we don’t expect and that includes seeing things that may or may not be there. It also makes us victim to other parties preying on our grief. Luthor Boggs turned out to be genuine in the end. Turning the Mulder and Scully dynamic on its head this early was brilliant and really deepened the connection between the two. Dourif’s performance is flawless and the tears on his face when Scully tells him she got him a deal are misleading. They are not tears of joy but of sorrow because he knows that she tried but failed. He is afraid of the cold place he is going to and has seen the light too late for redemption. Yet he still saves two people even though he is going to die. Perhaps this was to help him make peace with himself in the hope that where he is going may not be so cold after all.

In the hands of a lesser actor, this episode would not be as powerful and as enduring since it debuted in 1994. Beyond The Sea is simply a masterclass in how to do it right on every level.

TW Watches The X-Files; Detour S05E04

By Owen Quinn author

Photos copyright Fox

‘They’ say that Bigfoot is roaming our forests. Thousands disappear in National Parks across America every year, spawning allegations of cover ups to keep the dollars flowing from families and tourists. There are long time hunters and campers refuse to go back into the woods where they grew up. Rumours of feral humans, dogmen and much more permeate town bars where strange things have happened.

But what if there are things out there that don’t want us in their territory and are not afraid to come into your home to ensure their existence is not revealed?

So when two men surveying the Leon county area of the Appalachia National Forest Park vanish followed by a man, Mister Asekoff  and his son Louis, while out hunting, a new mystery falls into Mulder and Scully’s laps as if sent by God.

In the precredit sequence, we get a new forest creature. The surveyors are at odds as one is against this land before concreted over while another is all for it. All of a sudden, he cannot pull the ranging rod from the ground. On further investigation, he finds a substance on the ground that could be blood. He vanishes and the undergrowth erupts as something heads for the other man. He hides but suddenly two red glowing eyes open in the ground beneath him and he is dragged somewhere screaming.

What The X-Files always does best is take the normal and make it a doorway for creatures and monsters to push their way into our world. Our homes should be our castles but sometimes those castle walls crack. Indeed the monster for this can be seen as protecting its castle. It would have heard the conversation between the two surveyors about the entire area being concreted over. Their home is in danger of being destroyed so they are taking steps to prevent that from happening. If you go missing in the forest, then it never really ends well. The attack on the father and son may well have been a knock on effect from the surveyors. They are human so may well be part of the threatened encroachment so the forest creatures may will be thinking to dispose of each as they come but this only generates more attention. There is a clear conservation theme and message in Detour done very well without being in your face.

Even the theme of your home is your castle is a two way street when the forest creature goes after the son of the hunter. Every kid at some time has been scared of something either under the bed or in the closet and here we get the monster under the bed. Given the chameleon qualities of the forest creatures, those two deep red eyes are enough to evoke fear as the shadows enforce their intensity. When Louis is chased through his house by something with red eyes, it is tense especially as the creature has locked his mother out of the house.

Mulder and Scully are passengers with fellow agents Michael Kinsley and Carla Stonecypher en route to a team building exercise which Mulder has thus far managed to avoid thanks to a haemorrhoid condition he develops this time every year. His disdain for it is heightened when Kinsley and Carla gush over how hard they found the exercise where you couldn’t use negative language. Kinsley had particular issue with the word ‘but’ which Mulder symnpathises with. This brings much needed humour to the episode and to be honest, we all hate team building exercises. They are a complete waste of time.

But a police roadblock soon stops them as the search is under way for the missing father. The distressed wife goes to Mulder whose interest is piqued by this. Unidentified tracks leading away from the attack scene immediately hook Mulder. Dismissing the team building, Mulder decides to stay despite Officer Michele Fazekas dismissal of his help. In the scene where he says to Scully how he can put it without using negative words, shows just how much they have evolved and know each other so well. Indeed, Scully brings him cheese and crackers. When Scully realises that this sudden stay isn’t just a ploy to get out of the conference, they have an X-File.

After Louis’s attack, the thing walks on the balls of its feet, is seemingly invisible and there is more than one. Scully and Mulder join Fazekasand and Jeff Glaser, her local tech head. Everyone who has ever taken photos in a forest will tell you they are very green. Everywhere you look has that unreal emerald hue so if you can merge with your background, the more advantage it is against trespassers and predators. By the way, Glaser is played by Anthony Rapp who would later gain fame in Star Trek Discovery.

What we have from here on in is a game of cat and mouse where that green vista I mentioned before becomes a confusing road to separate the group. Michelle is taken first and then Jeff. With no cellphone reception, they are split on what to do. Scully agrees with Jeff and they need to go back.

I find it a bit strange that Mulder had just told Scully that whatever they are dealing with demonstrated a divide and conquer methodology with Louis and his mother. Yet now he allows them to fall into that just so Michelle can be taken.

The forest is devoid of animal life or noise despite a cicada noise when the creature is about and this helps adds to the atmosphere. Jeff is taken because he runs off in panic and Mulder is attacked as he and Scully track the creature. Whatever it is, it tried to pull Mulder beneath the ground. This allows us to gain more insight to the relationship between Mulder and Scully. She talks about how she was angry when she was battling cancer. And both agree, they identified with Betty’s bustline in The Flintstones but would never have married Barney.

This is a conversation and banter they could never really have had before season four. They are relaxed in each other’s company in a world where they only trust each other. Mulder even manages to convicne Scully to sing to keep awake as the night falls.

But something is only able to stay hidden as long as you don’t figure out how it shields itself. When Scully falls into one of the underground tunnels where she finds a barely alive Michelle. Mulder joins her and she shoots one of the creatures, allowing a close up look at it.

Just then, Kinsley and Carla find them and they are rescued. Mister Asekoff is also found but Jeff is not, nor are the surveyors.

In an interesting ending, we again get a reminder of how other agents in the FBI view Mulder even after they have witnessed the supernatural just like he has. Mulder believes that they are Spanish conquistadors who came to this area to find the Fountain of Youth. There was an inscription in the tunnel, ‘ad noctem’ ‘meaning into darkness. Those conquistadors may well have adapted in seclusion to the forest. But Kinsley berates him, saying that he is only makign that up so he can write off the hotel with the FBI. That look in Mulder’s face says it all and yet another reaon for him to seclude himself from agents just like the conquistadors did.

In one final twist, Mulder races to find a lone Scully in the hotel room as these things have demonstrated a taste for those that encroach their territory. However, Scully has killed one of them and may be in danger. He ushers her out of the hotel room and in the closing shot, we see two red eyes under the bed.

Detour is a nice contained episode that further explores and deepens the relationship between Mulder and Scully. It also makes us look twice at the forest and world around us and wonder what is really in there? What is making people disappear all over the country like that? Aside form convenient timing on the rescuers behalf, Detour is yet another solid entry into The X-Files with no signs of slowing down.

A Klingon Stole my Leg in Dublin Then Read my Book!

By and copyright Owen Quinn

Ever lose your heart to a starship trooper? Well, try losing a leg to a Klingon!

I don’t mean Chewbacca rip an arm off, limb loss. I mean, he got a hold of my prosthetic leg and tried to make a weapon out of it to whip up Klingon bloodlust. He left me clinging on (see what I did there) to the side of a transporter while he read my new book, The Time Warriors, When Angels Burn.

All I did was ask to sit on his Klingon captain’s chair for a photo then the great leg escapade began. It seems Bat’leths are on their way out so rushing at an enemy with a human leg will make an enemy turn and run. Well, you can be sure that whomever’s leg the Klingon is holding ain’t running anywhere any more. I bet he watched Ghosts of Mars. I tried top kick him in the behind but it got stuck and don’t ask me how.

Does a Klingon shit in the woods? After seeing my leg sticking out of there, I don’t want to know, really.

So there I was, leg off, stump hanging and doing my best to hop when off he went and sat in his command chair to read. So there he sat, my leg at his feet like Commander Kruge’s pet lizard dog in Star Trek 3 The Search for Spock. Then I noticed he’s reading my new book The Time Warriors, When Angels Burn. I bet Worf wasn’t such a naughty Klingon.

So, if the Klingonds buy the book in numbers equal to the space armada that attacked Cardassia in Deep Space 9, then I can buy a new leg or two. Am I still clinging on to the transporter where he left me? Will I ever get my leg back? And how many books will the Klingon race buy? Or was Q right? I woinder has he ate any good books lately? Should |I be insulted if they don’t eat them?

Klingons are komplicated!

Check the evidence below ro see this heinous crime!

Doug Jones on the Enterpise, Dublin Comic Con 2026

By and copyright of Owen Quinn

The wonderful Doug Jones arrived in Dublin on the weekend of the 8th and 9th of August 2026 for the summer edition of Dublin Comic Con.

Everyone will tell you how nice he is. But he took the opportunity to visit the USSCuchlain’s original series bridge set where he was beamed aboard and then took part in a space battle as everyone who has sat in that captain’s chair has done for all these years.

The video is not professional but it is fun.

R2D2 Fun at Dublin Comic Con Summer 2026

By and copyright Owen Quinn

It’s always fun to see and hear those familiar chirps and beeps that signal the droid we all love, R2D2 is in the house.

During the weekend of 8th/9th Augustn2026, R2D2 along witrh fellow droid, Chopper, could be seen meeting the crowds. Check out the vidoes below.

Pennywise meets the Grim Reaper at Dublin Comic Con 26

By and copyright Owen Quinn

Cosplayers are a big part of what makes conventions fun. On the wekeend of the 8th and 9th of August, there was a meeting so terrible, it made Doctor Doom look like a Pokemon.

In the halls and corridors of the Concvention centre in Dublin, the Grim Reaper and Pennywise the clown came face to face. The Reaper congratulated Pennywise for sending him so many souls; nice to hear what a good customer Pennywise was for him and then tried to take R2D2 into the afterlife.

They even took time to help promote author Owen Quinn’s new anthology, The Time Warriors When Angels Burn. And if you’ve seen episode 7 of Welcome to Derry, you’ll realise how terrifying that is in Pennywise’s hands.

Star Trek Discovery’s Doug Jones Beams on to the Enterprise at DCC

By and copyright of Owen Quinn

So the weekend of 8th and 9th of August, Dublin Comic Con welcomed the maestro himself, Doug Jones to the city.

He is the star of countless movies and television shows, Hellboy, Star Trek Discovery, The Mystery Men, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Pan’s Labyrinth and so much more.

Nobody can say a bad word about Doug. He is the nicest and most accommodating celebrity I’ve met in a while. You could just bring him home, he is so cool. This is his xecond appearance at Dublin in seven years and fans will confirm, he could come back every year and never grow old. he is so loved.

So he had to pay a visit to the USS Cuchulain’s original Enterprise bridge set, where he go t the guided tour and not only was beamed up but took part in a space battle. For that vifdoe, check out the other post but here is making his entrance via the transporter.

It’s a short vidoe buit his reaction is proiceless. Check the site for his space battle elsewhere on this site.

TW Pays Tribute To Robert Patrick

By Owen Quinn

Photo copyright Fox

Have you seen how people throw a wake for themselves just to see who would turn up and what they would say about the deceased? Well, I thought, why wait until a celebrity you admire to die before writing how much they have impacted you through their movies or television roles.

Like everyone else, when Robert Patrick melted into that liquid metal Terminator, the T-1000 in Terminator 2, I was hooked.

In a clever move, Patrick looked so different from Arnold that when he was revealed as the big bad, it was a real shock. We, as an audience, thought all Terminators looked like Arnie but now we knew that wasn’t so and somehow, Skynet was improving on its nearly perfect killing machine. How could anyone defeat something that could morph at will into anything and mimic their voices perfectly. With the buzzcut hair, Robert’s T-1000 went on to become iconic, making several cameos as the character left right and centre and the great thing was, it never got boring.

His career took off after that and I followed it closely for years. My big regret is that the week before I was due to meet him and Linda Hamilton, I lost my leg. Part of me should have just told them to delay it by a week so I could meet Robert Patrick in person in Dublin.

But c’est la vie. There is still hope.

But my other big reason for wanting to meet him was the fact he was the only man that could replace David Duchovny on The X-Files. As John Doggett, he brought a whole new dynamic to the show. He and Scully played off well together and their deepening working and personal relationship was done cleverly and realistically. When Mulder and Doggett finally came face to face, it was screen magic. It was a lost opportunity when Doggett didn’t return to the reboot or the movies.

In Reacher, he was a bad ass villain and wasn’t intimidated by the sheer size of Reacher. In The Walking Dead, he was a tragic figure that I would have liked to see go beyond the one episode. In True Blood, he was the grizzled father of werewolf Alcide Herveaux, he would arrive in the fifth season and stay to the seventh.

As the alien infected coach in The Faculty, he was one scary dude but no matter what you see him in, there is something magnetic about him. His story arc as Davey Scatino in The Sopranos was brilliantly depressing and his role in Night Agent cement his bad guy image and while he will forever have the sci-fi tag because of Terminator, Robert Patrick’s career is so extensive it will last forever. I always think an actor wants to be remembered for certain roles and Robert Patrick will certainly have that legacy. He has even lent his talents to The Ultimate Spiderman.

Of course, there are certain things he has not appeared in and Star Trek is certainly at the top of that list. If ever you needed a bad guy to scare even Klingons, then Robert Patrick is that man.

But for me, Robert Patrick will forever belong to sci-fi. He has eyes that can scare angels back into heaven. I really hope I get to meet him one day.