After spending the last few issues handling multi-part story arcs and grand conspiracies it’s refreshing to this week return to a single issue Monster of The Week story with “One Player Only” in which Mulder and Scully confront a “killer computer program”. Find out more after the jump.
A mid ‘90s X-Files story whose tagline includes the words “killer computer programme” is bound to be interesting if nothing else. The computer/tech episodes of the show are some of the most dated - I’m looking at you Brad Wilczek and your “data travellers, electro wizards, techno anarchists” spiel.
Thankfully, “One Player Only” manages to avoid coming across as too horrendously outdated. The story opens on a meeting room where three people sit around a table. Our perspective comes from a fourth individual - Robert - who enters holding a gun and proceeds to shoot and kill all three of the others. The page is especially interesting as it uses a mixture of real photos and illustrations in contrast to the usual art style of the series, however when we move to the next page, and the aftermath of the crime, we are back with our usual artwork.
Mulder and Scully are examining the crime scene giving Scully the opportunity to hand us some neat exposition on our killer - Robert Capek - “the most gifted programmer” at the computer games company they are standing within. Scully makes some worryingly backwards observations, noting that Capek had suffered “serious bouts with depression” & supposing that perhaps being surrounded by virtual violence every day “finally got to him.” Mulder however has another theory, because of course he does. Based on information from Capek’s defence attorney (an old friend of Mulder’s - by this point I think he knows everyone in Washington D.C.), Mulder claims that Capek was possessed by the game he was working on, entering a hypnogogic state and “sleep-walking through the murders”.
Later that afternoon Mulder & Scully meet with company CEO John Forbin who gives them some background on what Capek was working on: Project Praetorius. Forbin explains that to reach the next level of game realism “players must believe in the characters they encounter” requiring artificial emotions rather than intelligence. Mulder quips that he once “dated someone with those”. In a sequence that is visually reminiscent of MST3K, Forbin continues to describe the creatures programmed within the game who can experience a range of feelings including hatred and falling in love. Mulder questions whether they could be classed as life forms and Forbin replies that many of the programmers came “to believe they are alive”. He recounts the real world ELIZA simulations (which you can still “play” online) where people really believed they were talking to a real person, and explains how teams of programmers weren’t allowed to work on Praetorius long enough “to develop any unnatural attachments”. Capek however had resisted and was allowed to stay on due to the strides he was making. Scully performs autopsies on all four victims and recites her notes, allowing for some impressively technical medical jargon to be used - far more detailed than usual. We get to see the victims at the moments of their deaths as she determines the details of each one, realising that the final victim was shot at near point blank range into the face, indicating that he was on his knees in front of the shooter. Her face becomes stony as this picture forms in her mind and she understands the final moments of the man’s life.
The next day Mulder and Scully visit the St. Francis Hospital for The Criminally Insane in the hopes of talking with Capek themselves. One of the doctors informs them that Capek has become “increasingly withdrawn” and now just sits in his cell making strange hissing and beeping noises. Scully lightens the mood by suggesting that perhaps Mulder should try “talking in binary code”. Capek launches at Scully with a homemade knife, managing to spit out a few words to Mulder; “it’s killing me. Make it stop”. Mulder asks whether Capek is referring to Praetorious but the man suddenly stops moving and falls silent. Later that night, Mulder attends the company’s family fun day where is approached by Mr X. He tells Mulder that the games company has working on military contracts, allowing him to guess at their interest in Praetorious as an AI “motivated by hatred for whatever enemy you choose”.
Another night passes and Mulder & Scully find themselves at Capek’s home which has been ransacked. After determining that whoever destroyed the apartment would have also erased anything of use on the hard drive Mulder manages to access Capek’s email history without so much as a password to conceal it, and discovers that he has been regularly emailing someone named Shirley Atwood. Scully gets in another great line - this is her issue to shine - by commenting that “who says the art of letter writing is dead?” The agents track down Shirley & meet her at a coffee shop. She tells them how Capek confided in her but also admits her theory that this was because “he suspected I didn’t really exist”. Shirley tells the agents that all Capek cared about was Praetorious, calling it “his child”, and explains how angry he was after discovering the company intended to use it for military purposes. Capek planned to steal Praetorius by “converting the binary code into a series of audio pulses that could be stored in his brain”. Mulder hears a familiar beeping sound which Shirley says is just her computer receiving a fax via a cellular modem, but Mulder has clearly made one of his impressive mental leaps.
The agents visit The Lone Gunmen where they argue about Capek’s mental state like a married couple while the others try not to listen in to the fight. Mulder whips out the fact that Capek apparently possessed an unusual (yet highly convenient to the plot) variant of photographic memory “which allowed him to retain audio impressions perfectly”. Scully is unimpressed by this plot device but their fight is finally interrupted by Byers. Mulder managed to get a recording of the sounds Capek was making and, after speeding them up, the Gunmen have discovered “binary encoded text and graphic images” in the sounds. Mulder is overjoyed at the idea that they might be seeing “a computer program’s point of view” of the murders. The images they view are the same as the first page of the story only with Praetorius’ commentary at the bottom. Praetorius refers to Capek as “Father”, and the other members of the team as “Mother”, “Uncle” and “Cousin”. As Capek murders them all, Praetorious becomes distressed, begging its Father not to fire the gun and repeating, “Red Red Red.”
The following evening Scully sits at home typing up her report. She still has doubts and believes Capek to be the real killer, however urges that he remain “under careful guard”. Curious about something she calls St Francis’ Hospital where Capek’s doctor informs her that Capek’s condition has deteriorated and that “by morning he’ll be permanently catatonic”. The issue ends on a shot of Capek sat alone in his cell, only inside his head he hears the words of Praetorius. The program whispers how it misses its family, and Capek too, but that Capek’s actions made Praetorius “so sad” that it “had to shut [him] down.” No resolution is given regarding the fate of Praetorius which really feels like a wasted opportunity for a classic X-Files ending.