“I always thought when I got older I’d maybe take a cruise somewhere. This isn’t exactly what I had in mind.” – Fox Mulder.
DØD KALM [Standalone] Aired March 10, 1995
Episode: 2×19 / 43 Overall
Director: Rob Bowman • Writer: Howard Gordon & Alex Gansa
When some people on a ship are rescued, it is discovered that they are aging and later, dying. Mulder takes it upon himself to investigate the ship, which he believes has been the target of Philadelphia Experiments.
The X-Files had its fair share of gruesome monsters on the show, brought to life often with great success by the highly skilled art department. A monster of the week lineup from the entire series would be a veritable cornucopia of ghosts, ghouls, zombies, werewolves, vampires and mutants. Some of these nightmarish creations have become iconic images from the series, permanently etched in to the minds of the viewers. Any fan will remember characters like the Flukeman from The Host, Eugene Tooms from Squeeze and Tooms, the Peacock family from Home and The Great Mutato from The Post-modern Prometheus. Not to mention the many human ‘monsters’ such as the mind-controlling Pusher, Robert Modell, and the creepy child killer John Lee Roach from Paper Hearts. There’s no doubt the writers thought up some memorable antagonists for Mulder and Scully to face. However, there’s also another type of ‘monster’ that takes on a less corporeal form, the type of ‘monster’ the agents face in this episode. As wonderful as the zombies and mutant sewer creatures are I’ve always found that the unseen evil can be even more frightening. A force, entity or disease can, in some respects, pose a far greater danger. Once evil manifests itself physically, there is a sense that it can be contained and ultimately destroyed in one way or another. However if it is faceless, an ethereal presence, in some ways it poses a greater threat. This is what the agents face in Død Kalm, a threat they can neither see and struggle to fully understand.
The episode slows things right down, with a minimal cast, static environment and focus on dialogue and atmosphere over action. This was done partly to give the crew a rest following a series of demanding shoots with the previous episodes. The vibe and plot is similar to Darkness Falls, a small group of people trapped in an isolated place, the danger growing with the passing of time, and an invisible threat that they cannot fight head on. Everything about the ship is dark and foreboding and since the majority of the episode takes place here it’s quite a gloomy feeling show. Which is a good thing. This is one of those times where Mulder’s initial theory turns out to be way off and it’s Scully who uses her scientifically minded way of seeing to discover the cause of the rapid aging. Another good example of how the pair complement each other with their opposing ways of approaching a situation.
The extensive makeup and prosthetics applied to the actors was poorly received by many fans and drew harsh criticisms from some critics. It’s important to remember that the change in the character’s appearance was caused by cell damage and an overproduction of salt. This means that their skin became wrinkly, taking on the look of an elderly person. Therefore since the characters are not actually aging, but rather becoming deformed in a sense, you could excuse the somewhat odd makeup effects to a certain extent. Gillian Anderson’s makeup was done well, John Savage’s makeup never seemed to be quite enough as compared to Anderson’s and this was not explained within the story. Duchovny on the other hand looked almost comical by the end, there was far too much latex used which made his face lose to much of it’s natural shape and severely inhibited his facial expression. Poor effects notwithstanding, this still wasn’t enough to detract from my overall enjoyment of the show. Once again the main characters are put in mortal danger, even though we of course know that they’ll survive it’s still good to see that the writer’s are not afraid to let their lead actors get dirty. I like that at one point there is a doctor that approaches Scully, who’s in charge of the unit she’s investigating and she just happens to be both a woman and black. This may seem trivial but they could very easily have cast a while male doctor instead, the series often made conscious choices like this which I applaud.
Apparently the Norwegian spoken in this episode is very poor, according to people who speak the language, I personally have had very little experience listening to people from Norway so in all honesty I had no idea whether it was accurate or not. Some reviewers espouse that even people who aren’t familiar will the language could surely tell it sounded off, apparently not. One would assume the title Død Kalm is a Norwegian word but it’s actually gibberish. Død translates to Dead, however Kalm is not a word. Obviously the writer’s were intending the translation to be Dead Calm, which would refer to the stillness that took over the ship and most likely also reference the 1989 film Dead Calm. Yet again I seem to be at odds with the general consensus on this entry from Gordon and Gansa. Maybe it’s Bowman’s direction or my fascination with claustrophobic minimal settings that rely on characters to move the story forward but this is a Monster of the Week that borrows from, and earns its place among, earlier successful entries like Darkness Falls and Ice.
★★★★☆
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