The ultimate rule for me when it comes to judging fiction of any sort is if the material gives me a reason to care. Just anything of interest in the story which is worth my time spent reading or watching it or listening to it. "Ghost in the Machine" features absolutely nothing that makes me want to watch it again; the villain is merely a third rate copy of HAL9000 from "2001: A Space Odyssey", there is nothing important to Mulder or Scully in this episode, and even Deep Throat is completely wasted.
The Topps comics X-Files series issue #13 is called "One Player Only" and also deals with artificial intelligence (the story is somewhat similar in several ways, actually), and it's a solid piece of fiction. What absolutely fascinates me about this script by Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa is that it completely lacks any inventiveness or originality whatsoever, or even any distinctive dialogue. It's the worst sort of hack job because it's barely ever laughable or corny (dated, sure, but not overly cheesy), but it IS completely boring from start to finish. It's shot quite well, though, and they should have hired the director for a better episode.
Absolute nonsense.
3/10
The Topps comics X-Files series issue #13 is called "One Player Only" and also deals with artificial intelligence (the story is somewhat similar in several ways, actually), and it's a solid piece of fiction. What absolutely fascinates me about this script by Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa is that it completely lacks any inventiveness or originality whatsoever, or even any distinctive dialogue. It's the worst sort of hack job because it's barely ever laughable or corny (dated, sure, but not overly cheesy), but it IS completely boring from start to finish. It's shot quite well, though, and they should have hired the director for a better episode.
Absolute nonsense.
3/10